In AD’s exploration of beautiful homes across the world, one common thread is a statement Moroccan rug anchoring the living spaces. Beni Rugs has specialized in this very same style since launching their brand of fair trade rugs in 2018—each one a celebration of artisanal traditions in Morocco, where pieces are handwoven by local craftspeople.
The founders, Robert Wright and Tiberio Lobo-Navia, are especially interested in Moroccan rugs as canvases for storytelling and cultural representation. So when considering how they might approach a new collection, they searched for designers with the same ethos and eventually tapped Paris- and Marrakech-based Studio KO for the job, the architecture firm AD previously named “the architecture firm everyone will be talking about” for their design of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech.
As a firm, they’ve become known for what we’ve called their sumptuous and minimalist style, which organically feature lots of Berber rugs in their interiors so they certainly understood the assignment here. “With Beni,” says Studio KO’s Karl Fournier, “we share a common love for Morocco’s exceptional and vibrant craftsmanship. The fact that both of us are foreigners in an unfamiliar land has brought us closer together.”
The collaboration, named Intersection, considers these Beni Ourain rugs as cultural recordings, or artifacts of a specific time and place, in the same way that spreadsheets or a weathered journal entry might convey meaning and cultural context within each individual page.
The campaign for the collection depicts the rugs in a dilapidated officecpapers askew, cabinets ajar—as if to show their permanence despite the passing of time. Fournier told AD the collection demonstrates the intersection, hence the name, of certain Western archetypes with traditional Moroccan craftsmanship. “We wanted to illustrate the encounter between our two cultures and how they can communicate, how something utilitarian here can become an abstract pattern over there.”