REUBER HENNING create timeless rug designs most of all meant to be fun and a source of inspiration, designs instantly recognizable due to their unique combination of simplicity, a sense of humour and the designers’ love for detail. They reveal a distinct sense for traditional manufacturing and for modern interiors. The tapestry commissioned for the Quiet Room is inspired by nature – a large tapestry that will bring German woods into the UN Headquarters’ 39-storey office building. Taking cues from earlier designs such as “Seestück“ and “Afar“ as well as motifs by Caspar David Friedrich, Franziska Reuber has created a two-part tapestry showing the abstract outlines of a wood and, in the background, clouds and rays of sunshine. The two pieces, 3.20 x 5.00 m and 3.20 x 7.00 m in size, have been made exactly to measure from Tibetan highland wool and silk. Like all other REUBER HENNING pieces, they are handknotted.The Quiet Room – an informal meeting room decorated with artistic understatement Situated on midtown Manhattan’s East Side, the complex housing the United Nations in New York – and especially the 39-storey Secretariat tower with its shimmering turquoise glass façade which the Quiet Room is part of – epitomizes post-war modernism. The elaborate wood panelling that decorated the room’s walls until recently was well-known worldwide: In 1979,
German artist Günter Fruhtrunk and architect and designer Paolo Nestler created the Quiet Room, characterized by diagonal lines that break up the space, creating a dynamic expressiveness. As they both saw it, room and art converged to form “a visual continuum“. This approach was taken into account when it came to creating the new decoration: Due to its diagonal edges, the new REUBER HENNING tapestry is reminiscent of Fruhtrunk’s design.
The small Tibetan workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal, that produces all REUBER HENNING rugs foregoing any kind of machine or chemical treatment spent months diligently making these unique pieces of tapestry that will soon become the backdrop for informal meetings between officials and statesmen from all around the world.