A spider’s web suspended in morning dew. The iridescent scales of a butterfly’s wing. The slow, imperceptible growth of coral beneath the sea. These minuscule landscapes are the inspiration behind Zoometry, a new series of collectible, hand-knotted rugs created by Toronto design studio Creative Matters and Paris-based architecture studio RDAI. The collection translates nature’s hidden geometry into six tactile works of art.
“The starting point was the living world at a microscopic scale,” says Ana Cunningham, managing partner of Creative Matters. “We became interested in structures that can appear almost computational when magnified: grids, networks, repetition and geometry.” Invisible to the naked eye, those patterns became the foundation for six designs inspired by spiders, butterflies and coral.
Zoometry was born from RDAI’s annual internal creative research program, building on the two studios’ longstanding collaboration across luxury retail projects while extending it into more experimental territory. Together, Creative Matters and RDAI transform microscopic natural structures into woven landscapes, exploring how algorithmic precision and traditional craftsmanship can generate new forms of artistic expression.
Each piece begins as a digital composition created specifically for hand-knotting. Every pixel corresponds to an individual knot, creating a precise map for artisans in Nepal. For a 3-by-2-metre rug, that means approximately 1.8 million knots, woven at a density of 200 knots. “That’s twice the density of the 100-knot construction Creative Matters typically produces,” says Cunningham.
Yet the digital blueprint does not dictate the final result. “Precision does not eliminate the hand,” says Cunningham. “It creates the framework within which the hand can work.” The mill receives detailed information on colour blends, pile heights and fibre specifications, while multiple rounds of sampling determine how the design will translate into the finished surface.
“Hand-knotting has its own intelligence,” Cunningham adds. “Fibre behaves differently from a pixel. Colour shifts depending on material, pile and light.” Multiple rounds of colour sampling were needed to achieve the tonal transitions that create the collection’s depth and luminosity. Production, Cunningham says, takes approximately 14 to 20 weeks, depending on the design.
That relationship between structure and material is particularly evident in Butterfly 03, the piece that Clémence Hardelay, Creative Matters’ Director of Design in Europe, feels most connected to. “Its structural composition is deceptively simple, yet remarkably dynamic, brought to life by a subtle and elegant gradation of colour,” she says. Woven in wool and silk, the piece contrasts warmth with shimmer. “It’s this quiet tension between texture and light that brings the carpet to life in a truly poetic way.”
Design has long looked to the natural world for inspiration — Cunningham believes this collection shifts that familiar focus somewhat. “Zoometry moves beyond interpreting nature through recognizable motifs. Instead, it looks very closely at the systems beneath the surface.” She adds, “What feels particularly relevant to us is the opportunity to look at nature differently.”
That invitation continues at the Paris exhibition, where the rugs will be presented alongside photography and film by Nepalese photojournalist Narendra Shrestha, connecting the source material with its transformation into something tactile and spatial. These behind-the-scenes captures trace each rug’s journey from digital artwork to the weaving studios in Nepal, offering a deeper look at the craftsmanship and human stories behind the collection.
Cunningham says the collection begins with details that are easy to overlook: the architecture of a web, the veins of a butterfly wing and the slow accumulation of coral. “Magnified and translated through hand-knotting, these structures become almost otherworldly.”
Zoometry runs September 8–23 at Mouvement Modernes Gallery, Jardins du Palais Royal (11 bis Rue de Beaujolais), during Paris Design Week.
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