Creative Matters and RDAI Present Zoometry

A collaborative rug exhibition exploring the geometry of microscopic nature through craftsmanship and technology.

Mouvement Modernes Gallery, Paris

Exhibition: 08-23 September 2026

During Paris Design Week: 10-19 September 2026 | Gallery open daily, 10am-5:30pm

How can the microscopic structure of a butterfly wing or the delicate tension of a spider's web be translated into a hand-knotted rug? Presented by Toronto-based Creative Matters and Paris-based architectural practice RDAI during Paris Design Week, Zoometry explores this question through five exclusive rugs conceived using computational design and brought to life by master artisans in Nepal.

Zoometry Collection | Yarn dyeing in Nepal © Creative Matters, Narendra Shrestha photography

Zoometry is defined as the geometry of the living world, revealed through the organic micro-structures found in nature. In this collection, it becomes a design approach that translates intricate organic structures into visual expressions.

The collection brings together algorithmic precision and human craftsmanship. Digital design provides the framework, while the skill, intuition and sensitivity of the master weavers transform each piece into a tactile work of art where technology and savoir-faire are woven into one.

Zoometry exhibition

Alongside the finished rugs, the Zoometry exhibition invites visitors behind the scenes through a series of specially commissioned photographs and film by Nepalese photojournalist Narendra Shrestha. From architectural research and digital modelling to weaving workshops and the landscapes of Nepal, Shrestha’s work reveals the journey behind each rug and offers a deeper insight into the craftsmanship, cultural context and human stories behind the collection.

Zoometry Collection | Yarn drying in Nepal © Creative Matters, Narendra Shrestha photography

The exhibition is complemented by a curated selection of collectible artworks and design objects, curated by the Mouvement Moderne gallery, creating a visual dialogue with the rugs and extending the exhibition's exploration of materiality, form and nature.

1.8 Million Knots Between Idea and Form

Designed by RDAI and hand-knotted in Nepal by Creative Matters’ team of artisans, the collection is inspired by spiders, butterflies and coral. Each piece began as a highly detailed digital composition before being painstakingly translated into woven form.

For a single 3 × 2 metre rug, more than 1.8 million pixels are mapped into individual knots, revealing how digital precision and artisanal expertise work in dialogue. Rather than replacing the hand of the maker, computational design creates a framework for the judgement, experience and sensitivity of master weavers.

Handknotted in Nepal at 200 knots using Himalayan wool and Chinese silk, each rug exploits the distinct qualities of its materials to animate the woven surface.

Wool provides warmth, resilience and tactile richness, while silk introduces luminosity and shifting colour, reflecting light in ways that evokes the iridescence and vitality of the natural world.

Together, the fibres create surfaces that appear to change with movement and perspective, reinforcing the exhibition's exploration of perception and living form.

Creative Matters and RDAI have developed a close collaborative relationship through numerous projects over many years. Zoometry extends that partnership into more experimental territory, drawing on RDAI's annual creative research programme to investigate how architecture, computational design and traditional craftsmanship can generate new forms of artistic expression.

On the Zoometry collection, Ana Cunningham and Ali McMurter, Managing Partners of Creative Matters, comment: "Our collaboration with RDAI challenged us to push the boundaries of hand-knotted craftsmanship, proving that technology and human expertise can work together to create something truly extraordinary. Zoometry demonstrates the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when visionary design is realised through the enduring artistry of hand-knotted craftsmanship."

Denis Montel, Artistic Director and Executive Vice President, and Julia Capp, CEO of RDAI, note: "With Zoometry, we wanted to reveal the hidden geometries of the living world, transforming natural structures into woven landscapes that invite both contemplation and discovery. Our ambition was to translate the invisible intelligence of the natural world into forms that express movement, depth and emotion through the timeless language of craftsmanship."

Zoometry Collection

Spider 01

Anyone curious about spiders will discover a fascinating world of remarkably skilled and distinct species. The rug “Spider 01” invites you to walk freely across the seemingly random, multilayered composition specific to tangle web spiders. Let yourself be caught in the heart of these woven structures, brought to life by an elaborate mix of artisanal techniques. Here, golden, luminous silk threads softly emerge through the depth of the clear, misty wool surface.

Spider 02

Spider webs are among nature's most delicate and discreet structures. When the conditions become just right, water near the surface of the ground will cool enough to reach dew point and water vapor will condense. Bright water drops will then form and hang on top of these almost invisible silk membranes, suddenly revealing the beauty and underlying geometric precision of these floating woven structures, stretched across space yet hidden in plain sight. This rug is ”Spider 2”.

Butterfly 01

There is a microscopic secret behind butterflies' dazzling colors. Their wings are covered in thousands of overlapping scales, neatly arranged like shingles on a roof. This coating of micro- scales reflects and refracts light through the tiny ridges of their three-dimensional texture. This phenomenon is expressed here as a gradient and radiating motif where colours animate and progressively reveal a fine rectangular geometric array, making the carpet ”Butterfly 01” an abstract celebration of that hidden biological micro-wonder.

Butterfly 02

Nature and evolution equipped butterflies with remarkable visual and physical adaptations to evade predators and look gorgeous at the same time. Eyespots, also called ocelli, feature on the wings of many species and are probably the most famous and fascinating of butterflies' trademarks. Inspired by this evolutionary feature, the carpet “Butterfly 01” makes color and shape radiate and subtly evolve in value and scale, through an overlay of tiny rectangular cells, reminiscent of the scales covering their surface. An invitation to take a short walk upon a butterfly’s wing.

Butterfly 03

One of the key structural features of a butterfly's wing is the network of veins running through it, acting like gothic arches or modern tensile architecture to give the wing its shape, lightness, and flying ability. The ” Butterfly 03” carpet was born from the desire to translate, through simple contour lines, the dynamic curvature a wing takes as it unfolds, the butterfly stretching its surface to a state of minimal tension, just enough to let air flow beneath it. A delicate capture of that fugitive instant before flight.

Coral 01

Coral structures grow in mysterious ways, far beyond human timescale, seemingly still yet constantly evolving and transforming. The “Coral” carpet's custom linear pattern, inspired by the geometric intricacies of certain coral formations, captures this slow and patient organic evolution as if frozen in a single colourful and vibrant moment. A quiet reminder of how precious, and how precarious, something larger than us can be.

Starting price for a 6'x9' carpet: $12,150 USD

Availability: The Zoometry collection is available for purchase through both Creative Matters and RDAI, with plans to expand availability through select showrooms and retail partners.