Calhoun, Ga.—Durkan’s new Free Play collection of carpeting, which will debut at Boutique Design New York (BDNY) next week, injects energy into hospitality spaces through collaboration. This collection showcases the Durkan creative team’s design expertise, resulting in an inspiring portfolio of coordinating patterns that pair together in delightfully unexpected ways.
Free Play was developed using fundamental elements of the cadavre exquis (or “Exquisite Corpse”) technique created by the Surrealists. This approach to art, in which several artists collaborated on the same piece without knowing what had been added by the artist before them, was intended to unlock the imagination and experiment with styles or modes of design that pushed the artists beyond their routine practices.
“Cadavre exquis was actually a parlor game,” said Elizabeth Bonner, creative design director for Durkan. “Artists in the 1920s loved this game of collaboration because it stimulated them and opened them up to new ways of looking at their own work. As the experimental collaboration unfolded with Free Play, our design team was thrilled by the unexpected patterns that came from these exercises, knowing their creation originated from opening a door to unknown possibilities.”
Versatile Free Play is constructed using a variety of innovative manufacturing technologies created to meet the design and technical needs of different hospitality interiors. Together, the collection functions as a full system across Definity, Precision Dye Injection (PDI) and Pattern Perfect platforms, as well as tufted broadloom, so that every application within a property has the option of coordinating well-designed, quality solutions across a variety of different flooring categories.
Free Play is being featured at BDNY, Nov. 10-11, in expo booth 3527 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. At the Durkan booth, guests can create their own design story at a special interactive station. Using plexiglass screens to create different and unexpected designs, much like Free Play, guests can experiment, play and discover their own “unknown possibilities.”