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Crafting connection through construction

Sia Hurtigkarl’s path to textile design began early, shaped by the women in her family and a childhood spent surrounded by fabrics and making. But it was not until she studied at Design Academy Eindhoven and then completed her master’s in Furniture & Object at the Royal Danish Academy that her fascination with material and meaning truly crystallized.

“Textiles are my foundation. It’s what I always return to—it enables me to create the material itself—and the techniques of weaving and construction are my compass, even when I work with objects or furniture”, she says.

Hurtigkarl is interested in how objects are made and how that knowledge shapes our relationship with them. Her distinctive work explores how tactility and transparency—intuitively understanding how a design is made to appear or function in a certain way—can invite emotional engagement in us. 

Sia Hurtigkarl "I really believe that if people understand how something is constructed—how much care, intelligence, and craftsmanship go into it—they relate to it differently. It builds affection, even responsibility", Hurtigkarl muses. 

Tradition, Tactility, and Technique

Her submission to the Muuto Design Contest, Omni Rug, is a real embodiment of this idea. Firmly rooted in honest construction and a clear idea of locality, the prototype was initially developed in close collaboration with Nepalese artisans using local wool and traditional weaving methods.

A windswept coastal landscape with muted browns, golds, and greys of tall grasses stretching toward a foggy horizon. This image, evoking the earthy color palette of the Omni rug, suggests inspiration from Danish marshlands and the subtle beauty of natural textures and tones. — Picture by Simon Knudsen

@simonknuds

"The rug comes from a collection I called Landscape to Landscape. I brought visual inspiration from the landscape I design in, the Danish coastlines, and combined it with materials and craft from the landscape where it’s produced. There’s a mutual respect in that—an exchange. "

The rug’s most distinctive feature is its sense of total balance: warp and weft are equally weighted and dyed in softly contrasting colors, creating a subtle tension and a structural harmony. Fringes appear on all four sides, emphasizing the idea of transparency—of seeing the process, the making, and following the thread. 

Sia Hurtigkarl "Normally, a rug has fringes on two sides, a “top” and “bottom” where the warp is cut. I wanted to remove a sense of directionality and orientation that seems to always define these objects. This way, you can place the Omni Rug any way in a room—it makes it a more open and intuitive design. "

I love that someone might sit and fiddle with the fringes without even realizing it, she adds. 

Despite its quiet aesthetic, Omni Rug is deeply expressive. Its flat surface invites movement and connection. It’s meant to be lived with, not looked at from a distance. Hurtigkarl admits that there is always something playful in her designs—a small gesture that breaks the expectation. 

Evolving the rug through dialogue

The designer’s process is fueled by both everyday wonder and a sense of responsibility.

"Sometimes it’s the way a twig breaks, or the way something twists—I’ll see it and think, that’s so beautiful, I want to translate that. Other times, it’s a social or ethical concern I want to respond to. My practice swings between those poles: the aesthetic and the ideological. "

Discussing and prototyping the design with Muuto offered space to explore both. Though originally envisioned in neutrals, the palette of Omni Rug will be shaped through an ongoing dialogue with Muuto—connecting over a shared love of color, drawing from her original photographs but expanding into a shared visual language.

Sia Hurtigkarl "I was really inspired by what I see as Muuto’s evolving color journey. It felt like a perfect meeting point—my landscapes and their vision for contemporary color."