Carpet brand Tai Ping has eliminated "by far the most polluting" part of its production process with the Biophilic rug collection, made exclusively from natural materials that are left raw and undyed.
Instead, the 16 rugs presented at the London Design Festival derive their colours from 35 different natural fibres, including silk, cotton, jute, flax, bamboo and wool that are interwoven to create intricate gradients and patterns.
Cotton was also used to form the backing for the rugs, with natural latex derived from the sap of the rubber tree helping to bind the layers together in lieu of plastic.
By cutting out the need for dye, Tai Ping was able to reduce the amount of water needed to produce the rugs by 60 per cent while using 85 per cent less energy, explained the company's director of innovation and sustainable development, Alexander Rawlins.
"What we forget about the carpet and textile world is that the dyeing stage is by far the most polluting and the most energy-using part of the whole process," he told Dezeen.
"And it is possible to create beautiful and enduring products without passing through that process."
Eight of the Biophilic rugs are hand-tufted, painstakingly interweaving strands of silk, jute, cashmere and Berber wool to create gradient patterns reminiscent of Japanese shibori tie dyes – but without the need for external pigments.
"All of the colours you see come from the physical raw material," Rawlins said.
The other eight designs belong to the company's more affordable Studio by Tai Ping range and are hybrid-tufted with geometric patterns and more subtle colour differences, realised through a combination of flax, bamboo and felted wool.
"All of these fibres have inherent natural colours," Rawlins said. "And of course, sheep breeds and Berber sheep breeds come in different colours, so we currently have a palette of five or six different wool colours, which we mix together to create gradients."
The colours of the different fibres will change depending on the season when they are harvested, creating subtly varied results every time, although Rawlins concedes the process currently only yields "a certain amount of muted colour".
"As we source more and more sustainable sheep wools of different colours, we can add to that palette," he said.
"Another plus is that, by not dying these natural materials, we retain a lot of the wax and proteins on the surface materials, which actually protect them and make them beautiful, adding further to the durability."
While it is unlikely that Tai Ping will ever phase out its use of dyes completely, Rawlins said that learnings from the Biophilic programme will be fed back into Tai Ping's regular collection.
"By incorporating a wider range of natural, undyed materials, Tai Ping expands our sustainable material options while offering diverse, naturally-occurring colour palettes," he explained.
"We are also implementing resource-efficient techniques developed through the program, to significantly reduce environmental impact without compromising on design or craftsmanship."
At the London Design Festival, the rugs were staged alongside furniture by British designer Sebastian Cox, made using trees from his own woodland that had fallen victim to ash dieback.
Other highlights from this year's edition of the festival included a "greening machine" by Stefan Diez, Rio Kobayashi's first-ever pavilion and an exhibition organised by Pearson Lloyd that hopes to redefine what it means for an object to be "well-made".
London Design Festival 2024 took place from 16-22 September 2024. See our London Design Festival 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.