The Dutch company Carpet Sign bv commercializes carpet designed for outdoor use. It is water, UV and fungi resistant, described in the online catalog as a fully synthetic product ready to withstand outdoor conditions. The notion a carpet designed for the public space is certainly intriguing. It is a much more ambitious concept than the one behind this product, which is simply the adaptation of a regular carpet that uses weatherproof fibers. And, yet, ultimately, this product is capable of suggesting a whole new understanding of the public domain. The red carpet that leads to a restricted event is a direct precedent to this idea, although red carpets are conceived as ephemeral, available only for the duration of the exclusive event they lead to. But, what about a permanent carpet designed for sidewalks and plazas? What would it mean as a surface treatment within the city? Would it be a landscape operation, a micro-urban operation? Would it be an art installation? The dislocating effect of thinking about an object with a very clearly prescribed function –to provide comfort indoors- and subverting it according to a whole new set of parameters –what would happen if the sidewalks would be carpeted and warm, instead of neutral and hostile?- has always been a good design method. The product above might not be it, but it is certainly very close to radical innovation, however we may understand the meaning of the word innovation these days.
