GAN’s commitment to the environment and the reappraisal of craftsmanship has been recognized by Interior Design Magazine at its latest edition of the NYCxDesign Awards in New York. Plastic Rivers won in the “Environmental Impact” category, and Kengo Kuma’s GOZ was announced as an honoree in “Residential Flooring”.
The collection of rugs made of recycled PET designed by Álvaro Catalán de Ocón, PLASTIC RIVERS, won the category dedicated to design with positive impact on the environment. The category rewards products that address their own environmental impact and contribute to the United Nations SDGs.
PLASTIC RIVERS is the result of Álvaro Catalán de Ocón and GAN’s concern to raise awareness and fight, through craftsmanship, one of the great global problems of the industrial era: plastic waste. Formed by four rugs –YANGTZE, INDUS, NIGER and GANGES, the last one being the winner of the Ro PLASTIC PRIZE 2021 in the Urban Public Furniture Design category– it is a collection of rugs made in India by artisans who use the hand-tufted technique. These faithful and scale representations of four of the most polluted and polluting rivers on the planet take shape from recycled plastic fibers to give a new meaning to this waste and to evidence the paradoxical beauty of its origins.
On the other hand, GOZ, fruit of a collaboration with the renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, was announced as an honoree in the category “Residential flooring”.
With GOZ, the Japanese master shows his vision of craftsmanship by listening to materials, their intrinsic constructive capabilities and their emotional content. Formed by three rugs called Kiri, Ame and Tsuchi -the terms for fog, rain and soil in Japanese- GOZ extols the genuine beauty of handmade and organic materials such as wood and wool in their raw state.
In previous editions of the NYCxDESIGN Awards, the jury has awarded other GAN collections, such as PATCH and CORD (2021), designed by Patricia Urquiola for the collection that GAN designs exclusively for Haworth Collection; ZOE (2020), by Daria Zinovatnaya; NUANCES (2019), MIRAGE (2018) and GARDEN LAYERS (2017), also from Urquiola; and LAN (2018), from Neri&Hu.
The GAN team thanks the organization of the NYCxDESIGN Awards, as well as Cindy Allen, editor of Interior Design Magazine, and the other members of the jury, consisting of experts in the design and architecture industry.
Our most sincere congratulations to Álvaro Catalán de Ocón, the team of Kengo Kuma & Associates, and the rest of the winners in this edition!
