Lukasz Kos and Andrei Zerebecky: Urban Fabric

Urban Fabric is a special interdisciplinary project conceived of by Andrei Zerebecky and Lukasz Kos, founders of the design office Four O Nine based in Shanghai since 2011. The young practice has since expanded to include a second design studio in Warsaw with a number of projects in Europe now under construction. Architects, noted furniture designers, and now carpet artists, the firm has won several international awards and garnered recent press with profiles in Surface Asia, Wallpaper, Perspective, Dwell, and Architectural Record. Their architectural work has been featured in titles published by Taschen (Köln), Gestalten (Berlin), Braun (Switzerland), Thames and Hudson (London), and Monacelli Press (New York). Both Zerebecky and Kos are graduates of the University of Toronto's faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Their studies took them to Los Angeles, Rome, Krakow, and Amsterdam for advanced research in architecture and urbanism. After earning their master of architecture degrees, they worked in the offices of Frank Gehry and Bruce Mau. Exhibited in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai, this is the first exhibition of their work in the United States.

The John Hartell Gallery installation features three large finished projects representing Toronto, Los Angeles, and Manhattan. These are based on actual scale maps extruded and meticulously carved out of hand-tufted New Zealand virgin wool. Alongside the diverse shapes and landscape conditions unique to each city within the collection, color also conveys a sense of place; for instance, Toronto's hues convey salt on snow. Also on display are test samples of other city carpets and further documentation showcasing the design process from sketches, cartographic scans, pile sections, and color ranges. Inspired by the unique patterns of cities, traditions of rug manufacture and representation — think Gottfried Semper's emphasis on textiles with his Primitive Hut, John Ruskin's obsession with the carpet patterns of his nursery, or the Bauhaus/Black Mountain works of Anni Albers — the work of Zerebecky and Kos links urbanism, architecture, design, and scale. These rugs are soft city models, as instructive to touch as to see.