Atlanta—Interface, a worldwide commercial flooring company and global leader in sustainability, unveiled Embodied Beauty, a carbon neutral/negative carpet tile collection.
Consistent with the company’s Climate Take Back mission and commitment to lower the carbon footprints of its products, four styles of Embodied Beauty are carbon neutral across their full product life cycle through the Carbon Neutral Floors program. In addition, this is the first Interface carpet tile collection to feature the company’s new cradle-to-gate carbon negative carpet tiles, with three cradle-to-gate carbon negative eco-friendly flooring styles.
Designed by Interface vice president of global product design, Kari Pei, Embodied Beauty reflects Japanese aesthetics of minimalism, restoration and the organic beauty of the natural world. The collection is designed to evoke feelings of connection with others and with nature, embracing the principles of ikigai, a Japanese concept related to “having a purpose.” These influences come together in an array of unique styles that range from narrow monochromatic patterns to large-scale graphic tufted textures.
“As our first collection to include carbon negative products, Embodied Beauty truly encapsulates the idea of working in alignment with nature, which is a concept often emphasized in Japanese culture,” said Pei. “This inspired the aesthetics in the design and yielded a wealth of textural and color options to consider. Looking closely at the styles, you can recognize elements of kintsugi, the art of mending broken objects to create something new and beautiful, as well as sashiko, a decorative form of stitching. The carpet tiles create a refined floor that projects poise and quiet grace suitable for virtually any space.”
Beauty that restores
With seven carpet tile styles and 12 colorways, Embodied Beauty evokes the beauty of antique textiles, irregular gridded textures, woven graphics and soft, subtle contours of nature.
The collection features three cradle-to-gate carbon negative styles: Shishu Stitch, Tokyo Texture and Zen Stitch. These products combine the company’s new CQuest BioX backing with specialty yarns and proprietary tufting processes and are designed to store more carbon than any carpet tile before. By storing carbon, these styles keep it from entering the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming, and they help Interface customers lower the carbon footprints of the spaces they create.
Embodied Beauty also includes four additional styles—Geisha Gather, Sashiko Stitch, Simple Sash and Vintage Kimono—featuring calm, muted grays in warm and cool tones alongside natural colors for added nuance and palette sophistication. All of the styles combine and contrast tastefully, installing easily and efficiently side by side to deliver an integrated flooring solution with timeless appeal.
The Embodied Beauty collection is currently available in the Americas and is expected to launch globally in 2021.