Scan Magazine | Sustainable Design Profile | Massimo Copenhagen
Sustainable, handmade rugs made from precious materials Massimo Copenhagen’s range of hand-knotted, hand-woven, high-quality rugs showcases the company’s use of sustainable materials and close attention to craftsmanship. By Jane Graham | Photos: Massimo Copenhagen
A good rug should act as an integrated element in an overall interior rather than steal the attention from everything else in the room.” This is Mads Frandsen's belief. He is the CEO of Massimo Copenhagen, a company specialising in high-quality, hand-woven, hand-knotted rugs combining sustainable materials with centuries-old craftsmanship and design tradition. Massimo Copenhagen started in 2001, importing furniture from Italy. But soon, thanks to the expertise of Frandsen’s wife, whose background is in fashion and textiles, they discovered the potential in rugs. Over the past 15 years, the company has grown steadily, and it now exports its top-quality rugs globally. About five years ago, the company took the innovative decision to try to use
bamboo as a manufacturing material, and Massimo Copenhagen can be considered a forerunner to the many sustainable interior design offers available today. Frandsen mentions some of the great properties of bamboo: “Bamboo gives a luxurious feeling due to its unique softness and shiny surface. In addition, bamboo fibres have strong durability, stability and tenacity, and peeling is minimised to almost nothing.” If you add sustainability to this – as bamboo thrives without any pesticides and is biodegradable – then it is little wonder that bamboo is now being used to replace a lot of the less green materials in many different products. Frandsen also points out a lesser-known quality of bamboo: the way it reflects the light. “Bamboo has the same feel-
ing and shine as velvet,” he explains. Massimo Copenhagen’s latest collection exploits this quality to create optical illusions, as one colour tone wraps into the next and reflections change depending on the light. Furthermore, the rugs Moon Night, Copper Moon and Space Surface also reference the traditional Scandinavian colour palette and very Nordic approach of making each element part of a unified whole. The company will be exhibiting at Milan Furniture Fair this April, an occasion which Frandsen very much looks forward to: “In terms of crafts and design, Milan Furniture Fair is the most important date in the calendar. Competition is tough to get a stand there, and I’m proud that we can be part of it.”
Massimo Copenhagen rugs can be ordered from the web shop.
Web: www.massimocopenhagen.dk
Issue 123 | April 2019 | 27