Ciliophora Round Carpet, Hand Knotted in Wool, 40 Knots, Maarten Baas

Furniture designer Maarten Baas doesn't subscribe to conformist notions of beauty and symmetry. He finds appeal in the character of aged patinas and wear from usage. As such, Baas doesn't seek to create furniture or decorative objects that are perfectly proportioned — for proof, look no further than to the unconventional cabinets of his Close Parity collection or the chairs with oddly shaped backrests he designed for Lensvelt.

Baas breaks unspoken rules, and his influential work is as much art as it is functional design — he’s garnered support from likeminded creatives in his field such as Phillippe Starck and Marcel Wanders, and explores how he might put unusual materials to work such as clay or charred wood in the construction of his chairs and table lamps. 

Baas was born in Germany and grew up in the Netherlands. After graduating high school, he began his studies at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Before he had even graduated, Baas made an impression on instructors and students alike with his graduation project. 

Using pieces of secondhand furniture he had procured online — some of which was manufactured by IKEA — Baas scorched the wood all the way through with a blowtorch. He soon found a way to preserve the wood once it was burned through, and this led to his inaugural Smoke series. The chairs and a lighting fixture from this line were put into production by Moooi, a furniture brand Wanders cofounded with Revised’s Casper Vissers in 2001. Hospitality guru Ian Schrager got in touch, and a pool table from the collection was custom-made by Baas for the Gramercy Park Hotel.

Since Smoke, Baas has produced numerous pieces, with his best-known efforts involving the repurposing of existing furniture and modifying it to look the way he wants. Ever the innovator, Baas introduced a series of clock designs as part of an art installation that began to take shape in 2009 at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan.

The designer’s clocks see an incorporation of video and other technology. Each piece, such as the ten-foot tall model installed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in 2016, presents the illusion of human figures toiling to keep time behind its face by way of a 12-hour recorded performance. 

Baas’s works are held in the collections of many notable museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 

Find Maarten Baas seating, tables and lighting on 1stDibs.

Nodus Project Nodus is a craft workshop with a cultural plan: the oldest traditions and knowledge in the art of carpet design are reinterpreted using the vision of the most innovating Designers and Architects, producing only unique pieces, promoting through events and publications in order to spread the knowledge to all about the new shapes and forms of a piece that has accompanied man since antiquity. Craftsmanship: Nodus has selected from the best producers in six countries of the world (Nepal, Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan, China and Turkey) visiting them one by one, verifying materials, techniques, expert craftsmen and ethical production. Each carpet from Nodus will be a unique piece, entirely made by hand, even including the packaging. The result is a collection of 60 carpets that outlines a new horizon of shapes and colours, a collection that unhinges borders and goes beyond the hand of reason. The spirit of the carpets is captured in dynamic and organic forms, like putting together a puzzle, assumes irregular profiles or takes inspiration from contemporary and everyday products such as fabrics, tablecloths, books and maps. All the rules are torn up, except one: The hand weaving, knot by knot. Whether you purchase or only appreciate the quality of a piece from Nodus, you can be assured that the carpet has been produced with the utmost respect, first and foremost for human rights, and the right to good working conditions and fair compensation.