I
t’s the end of monsoon season in Nepal and the road leading to Jan Kath’s rug-making facility on
the outskirts of Kathmandu bears the bruises of heavy rains. Marred by jagged rocks and knee-
deep pits of mud, the city’s roads are constantly claiming tires. I notice with some alarm that the
low stone bridge we’re crossing looks partially collapsed, but as Kath nudges his 4×4 around a pair
of cows blocking the road, he exudes a Zen-like calm. He grew up in Germany, but he learned to drive in
Kathmandu, he tells me. Everywhere else on earth is easy by comparison.
Passing through the factory gates into the central courtyard, I see a woman sitting to one side com-
bining skeins of wool, silk and nettle thread into brightly coloured balls; behind her is a row of workers’
living quarters, and around the corner a daycare full of preschool-age children. My attention, though,
is immediately captured by the yawning door to the weaving hall, a room of barn-like proportions where
looms of all sizes are lined up like pews in a church. Young men and women sit side by side in front of
them, tugging at threads trailing from balls of yarn clustered on the floor.
Toward the back, reaching almost to the ceiling, is one particularly notable rug. At roughly 9.5 metres
long and 4.5 metres wide, it’s larger than the average living room. Weavers have been lined up five wide
in front of it, in double shifts, for almost seven months. Soon it will travel to Toronto, where it will serve
as the focal point for a new Forest Hill residence designed by Cecconi Simone. First, however, it will
head down the road to another facility, where it will be hand-scrubbed, sun-dried and stretched for
days until it’s perfectly flat, then scissor-trimmed by a team tracing and re-tracing the contours of the
rug’s intricate raised pattern.
Barring the electric lights, the scene in the weaving hall could almost be from a hundred years ago, or a
thousand: The methods used here, imported from Tibet, follow a tradition that stretches back to ancient
times. Jan Kath factories in other countries also draw on local traditions – particularly Moroccan and
Persian ones – for inspiration.
If Kath has a soft spot for these ancient arts, it’s because he grew up around them. “My dad, my grand-
dad and even further down the line all dealt in traditional textiles,” he says. “They used to travel to Iran,
062 _ _MAR/APR 2019
Jan Kath’s
MAGIC
CARPET
RIDE
Two decades ago, nobody was buying carpets, recalls the
German rug maker. His idea for countering that: turning out designs that
appealed to his own modern tastes. Nowadays, his eponymous brand
supplies clients worldwide with wildly inventive pieces largely
made to order. As it turns out, rugs do have a place in contemporary
interiors – if they speak a contemporary languageWords _DAVID DICK-AGNEW Photographs _ LARS LANGEMEIER