Rugberry Universe

Bombay Deco: How a Reclaimed Shore Became Modern

Bombay Deco rose on land pulled from the sea, with ship rails, portholes and Indian names. Facing the Victorian Gothic across the Oval Maidan, it shows how a city argues with its past.

Keiji Ashizawa, Steel and Honest Wood

Keiji Ashizawa is shorthand for the Japandi look, yet he trained as a steel fabricator and built a furniture brand from a recovery workshop. On joints, plain materials and use.

The Golden Fibre and the Line Drawn Through It

Jute is lifted from Bengal's ponds after retting, a wet and heavy labour behind every pale jute rug. Partition put most of the fields across a border, and Bengal's farmers rebuilt the crop.

Long Life Design at D&Department

Kenmei Nagaoka built a shop around one question: what has already proved it can last. What long life design asks of a buyer, and of a home.

Old Stone, No Pastiche: RAAS Jodhpur

Beneath Mehrangarh Fort, Studio Lotus restored three inherited buildings and set honest new ones beside them, in lime, sandstone and stone lattice, rather than building a costume haveli.

The Women Who Wove the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus is remembered in steel and white walls, yet its weaving workshop, where many women were steered, made pattern from structure. Its lesson for floors has outlasted the chairs.

How a Herders' Blanket Became the Bhujodi Weave

In a village outside Bhuj, herders once brought fleece to weavers and took home a blanket that was raincoat and bed in one. How that barter grew into one of India's great weaving traditions.

Apartamento Makes the Case for the Lived In Room

Since 2008 Apartamento has argued that a home is more interesting unstyled, with its piles of books and worn chairs. What that means for a rug that is part of a life rather than a set.

Jantar Mantar, Jaipur: Geometry Built to Read the Sky

Jantar Mantar is the rare monument where the decoration is the maths: masonry instruments sized to the sun. What a royal observatory teaches anyone who draws pattern for a floor.

Wabi Sabi Begins in a Two Mat Tea Room

Before it was a styling look, wabi sabi was a hard edged argument against display, made in a tea room of two mats and in black bowls the fire finished. Why it is about accepting what the maker cann...

Kanchipuram's Korvai, the Join You Are Not Meant to See

A Kanchipuram sari is built as much as woven: two weavers on one loom lock a contrasting border into the body, pick by pick, so it never parts. In silk, as in rugs, the real luxury is structure.

What Vincent Van Duysen Leaves Out

Vincent Van Duysen is filed under minimalism, but his own homes in Antwerp and Melides are full of stone, wood and linen. His work is about material warmth more than emptiness.

When the Looms Came Back to Maheshwar

A queen's riverside residence became a small hotel, and inside its walls a weaving society revived the Maheshwari sari. What a heritage hotel looks like when the craft is an economy, not decor.