The Luxury Beneath: Object Carpet’s premium flooring

A carpet manufacturer as a luxury brand? You can read all about it in black and white: besides brands such as Porsche, Leica, Dornbracht and Montblanc, OBJECT CARPET is also on the list of Germany's Top 50 premium companies, as drawn up by Ernst & Young, the Munich Business School and the INLUX Institute for Luxury. This is only surprising at first glance, because the company founded in 1972 has developed an impeccable reputation among architects and interior designers – with its combination of contemporary design, German craftsmanship and the greatest possible degree of functionality, which probably no other carpet manufacturer can offer. The selection of designs, finishes and bold colours that can be integrated into a wide variety of design concepts offers architects new planning possibilities. What's more, a good carpet brings quality living into rooms that are used by many people simultaneously, and so it comes as no surprise that not only known architects but also large companies put their faith in carpets from Denkendorf.

The great strength of the range is that it combines an almost inexhaustible selection of contemporary designs with advanced technology. OBJECT CARPET manufactures tufted, woven and needled-felt carpets that, with their variable surfaces and finely nuanced colours, can contribute a great deal to spatial impression in contemporary architecture. Since carpets always have to fulfil practical tasks in the commercial sector, OBJECT CARPET offers the right material for virtually every conceivable case – from water-resistant floors that can be disinfected through to sound-deadening carpets with acoustic properties and flexibly deployable carpet tiles. Special colours and even custom-designed developments are possible as of order quantities of 200 square metres.

The fact that the safety of the carpets is ensured with ISO, DIN, EN and EPD certification can almost be taken for granted. It has not long been a matter of course that the company deliberately ensures that its carpets are environmentally friendly, sustainable and, above all, good for healthy living. The TÜV-tested, allergy-free carpets reduce hazardous, fine air-borne dust by more than 50% and lock it in until the next time they are vacuumed.

Just as innovative as the products themselves are the ways that OBJECT CARPET has found to make customers aware of its range. The key finding is that architects, planners, wholesalers and private customers have very different needs, which are hard to reconcile – not just with regard to the product itself, but also as regards selection, information and communication. This sounds rather abstract, but when one reflects on the different roles, one understands how to help whom in the best possible way: architects, who have to include the carpet in the planning process, will find comprehensive digital design data for conventional software programs that can be employed in professional renderings. For retailers, however, the portal My OBJECT CARPET is available. The most interesting offer, which is aimed at dealers, but expressly also at private customers, is the RUGX configurator, with which the products of the same series itself – single rugs, also for domestic use – can be individually configured and ordered. And that's quite impressive: more than 1,200 qualities in countless designs and colours are available, including shags, velvety velours or hand-woven one-off designs made of silk. With leather or textile trims of matching or deliberately contrasting colours, carpets become a unique item. You can see on screen what goes together – or not, as the case may be. Specialist dealers can then show their customers the carpet of their dreams or, together, create the ideal combination, calculate the price, and order the product direct via the My OBJECT CARPET dealer portal. This is a process that uses the latest technological possibilities in a way that benefits customers and businesses alike and that can serve as a model for other industries and companies.

The passion that OBJECT CARPET has invested in its products and services for years has long since paid off – not only in measurable success, but with many high-end design awards. The SUPERGRAPHIC HIGH CLASS COLLECTION recently won a Red Dot Design Award. Rightly so, because this product line shows that is possible to achieve refined effects for the commercial sector through the skilful use of materials, even with carpets designed for everyday use: made with new tufting techniques in six different qualities, the series combines characterful graphic patterns, sculptural structures and striking colours. Eye-catching, variable gloss levels permit a graphic interplay with surfaces and reflections, such as one has not seen before in large carpets.

Two other innovative new developments were rewarded with the Interior Innovation Award 2014. The SHINY series, in which the threads are finished with a metallic glitter effect and tufted into a voluminous velour carpet, appears opulent and luxurious, but seems so robust that it can improve even heavily used areas. The second prize-winner is quite different: SPLENDIDO from the PALAZZI HOTEL collection, designed by Matteo Thun and Antonio Rodriguez, relies on simple, timeless, quiet pleasant design and exploits its strengths over large surfaces in particular.

It is scarcely surprising that the combination of sophisticated design and a high utility value which OBJECT CARPET stands for wins over not only interior designers and private customers but also well-known architects. This is especially true for public or office buildings, where the flooring assumes a special role as regards design and function, whether as part of the colour concept or to reduce footfall sound. This is why Zaha Hadid and Hitoshi Abe chose carpets made by OBJECT CARPET for their buildings for the University of Economics campus in Vienna, inaugurated in 2013. In the Library and Learning Centre (Hadid), the hard-wearing SL POODLE carpet tiles and the deep pile, shiny SL GLORY carpet ensured an elegant appearance and muffled sounds, whereas the silver-grey version of the GLORY series was laid in the Students Centre (Abe). References which the medium-sized company can justly be proud of.