Alessandro Isola, a 39-year-old Italian architect, from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy,has invented a rug that can turn into a couch. He calls it the “Stumble Upon Sofa”.
Tripping up on creases in the rug on your floor can be hugely agitating – but it inspired one man to create this unusual piece of interior design.
“Ordinarily a ridge in a carpet would immediately be pulled straight or be stood on to regain its flat purpose,” the London-based designer explained on his project’s website. “But not in this case.” Instead, imperfection is magnified until ridges are large enough to offer supportive curves that create a distinctly different seating structure, named the Stumble Upon Sofa”. The concept follows on from the same creative curiosity and desire for design disorder, that conceived of the Stumble Upon Coffee Table, with its turned up corner that folds to a functional surface.
This accentuation of normally unwanted undulations, makes for playful visual twists, that in the case of the Sofa, offers plentiful seating in a creatively uncompromising way. Comfort is created beneath the ridges by the addition of padding to the carpet area that flows over the carbon fibre supportive core. In turn this core presents its own practical surprise, by doubling up as book or display shelving that can be viewed at the larger open end of the sofa.
The changing height and curvature of the sofa along the length of its ridges, provides upright seating positions at one end and comfortably informal lounging at the other.
The rug is designed to be its own seating structure with supportive curves and ridges molded with a carbon fiber core. Padding was also added to make the sofa more comfortable, and there are built-in shelves that can hold books and display knick-knacks beneath the folds.
