Edida

Rooshad Shroff: EDIDA India 2016 Flooring winner

JAN 5, 2017 | By Nishita Fiji
Rooshad used traditional flooring designs and morphed two distinct ones for each of the seven carpets to create hybrid patterns. Rooshad Shroff’s EDIDA 2016 winning Tesellations series of carpets for Cocoon Fine Rugs.
It came as no surprise when Rooshad Shroff was announced as the winner of yet another EDIDA, this time in the flooring category. The talented Mumbai based designer has been awarded for his wall coverings and lights in previous years too. In 2016, he collaborated with carpet manufacturer Cocoon Fine Rugs for his Tesellations series that comprise of seven carpets embellished with complex geometric forms. We caught up with him to discuss his third EDIDA, first rugs endeavour and flooring of the future.
ELLE DECOR: What is the best part about winning an EDIDA?
Rooshad Shroff: For me it becomes a way of knowing that I’m on the right track. A lot my designs are not very mainstream or commercial. So it’s quite good that there is some form of recognition for the direction of work that we do as an office.
ED: The best way to describe your EDIDA winning product…
RS:  For the carpets it was really about marrying technology with old school methods. So we took traditional flooring designs and morphed two distinct ones for each of the seven carpets to create hybrid patterns. In that sense, we were really pushing the boundaries of technology to create these prints. But we still incorporated traditional methods of hand-knotting to produce them which is why these took almost three months to make.
ED: Take us through the process of creating your EDIDA winning product.
RS: This was in collaboration with Cocoon Fine Rugs but it was something I had started even before Cocoon had got on board. This is the first time I’ve ventured into rugs so when they approached me, I thought it would be great to tap into their expertise and work with one of the best brands in the field today in India. In terms of the manufacturing, they understood what the possibilities were and smaller details that were unknown to me at first. For instance, the difference between hand-knotted and machine-tufted is that we can get even more intricacy into the former.
ED: Is there any flooring designer in particular whose work you admire?
RS: For a while now, Bharat Floorings has really pushed the boundaries with concrete and terrazzo. I really enjoy their bold patterned floors. I’ve even worked with them on two different projects and they’ve always been very helpful in terms of customising tiles.
ED: Where do you see flooring trends going in the coming years?
RS: Right now, because really busy patterns are such a big trend in flooring, I think after a point, I can see us going back to monochromatic, seamless floors.
Website: www.rooshads.wix.com/rooshadshroff
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