CREATIVE MATTERS’ RUGS DEFINE CALGARY’S BANKERS HALL TENANT LOUNGE
Imprint Earth Rugs in Bankers Hall Tenant Lounge
Image: Eymeric Widling
In the heart of downtown Calgary, Bankers Hall rises as a symbol of refined modernity. Its twin 52-storey towers anchor the city’s financial core. Within its amenity floor, designed by Kasian, Creative Matters was invited to bring quiet luxury underfoot to its tenant lounge.
The approach began with two signature Creative Matters designs, Imprint Earth from the Arashi Collection and Cadence Gradient from the Sonance Collection. Each design was reimagined to complement the lounge’s architecture and echo its surroundings.
This project illustrates how Creative Matters’ collections can become a springboard for customization, beginning with established designs and refining them to reflect the character of a space. This use case demonstrates how a collection piece can evolve into something that is entirely individual.
“Working with collection pieces as the foundation gave us a clear language to build on, acting as a starting point for something distinctly tailored and new,” shares Sandra Ciganic-McKinney, Creative Director, Creative Matters. “In this case, it was about adapting scale and adjusting colour gradients to make subtle changes. The result was a set of rugs that felt cohesive with one another and within the space.”
FROM LIVING ART LIBRARY TO WOVEN FORM
Our collections and custom projects are informed by a world shaped by our studio’s Art Days, an ongoing practice where the design team experiments with pigment, texture and form to create original artworks. It was from this practice that Imprint Earth was produced.
“Imprint Earth began with pieces of fabric and paper dipped into natural dyes made from plants, fruits and vegetables. The dipped colours allowed for bleeds, overlaps and blends in unexpected ways. That spontaneity became the defining element of Imprint Earth,” Sandra shares.
Our Imprint rug for Bankers Hall delivers a sense of organic movement to the lounge, as pile heights catch light and shadow, adding depth to the room. It balances nature and warmth, calmly grounding the corporate setting.
The original shibori dyed fabric that was used in the design for Imprint Earth
WORKPLACE MEETS LIFESCAPE
Left: Yarn samples showcasing the full Cadence gradient palette
Right: Cadence Gradient
Each of the four rugs is handknotted, a construction not typically seen in commercial interiors, but the tenant lounge provided the ideal setting to showcase tactile luxury and lasting performance. Handknotted in Nepal with Tibetan wool and Chinese silk, the rugs bring natural warmth, acoustic softness and durability to a space designed for daily use. As a private amenity for office tenants only, the lounge allows the luxurious wool and silk to age gracefully while retaining its aesthetic over time.
“Cadence Gradient was chosen for its serene ombré, a design that naturally conveys movement and calm. The goal was to create a sense of flow, where colour and light bring rhythm and ease to a corporate environment,” says Rosa Wharton, Designer, Creative Matters. “We adjusted the ombré between two rugs to make it feel continuous, almost like light passing through the room. 51 individual colours were blended by hand to form the gradient, each one tuned to create an effortless shift from tone to tone.”
These tenant lounge rugs demonstrate how subtle adjustments can transform a familiar design into a piece that is site-specific. Through careful and intentional refinement, a collection piece becomes more than its original design, growing into a thoughtfully suited piece tailored to its surroundings.
Discover our corporate custom portfolio here.