Merel Karhof

Windworks Furniture collection

To estab­lish the Wind­works fur­ni­tu­re coll­ec­tion, the stu­dio initia­ted a col­la­bo­ra­ti­on bet­ween two his­to­ric wind­mills from the Zaan­se Schans (NL) and the Wind Knit­ting Fac­to­ry. Each one of the­se pro­du­ces a dif­fe­rent kind of raw mate­ri­al. The­re is a colour mill cal­led which has been fit­ted out to grind colou­ring mate­ri­als, as well as a saw­mill that saws planks from trees to old Dutch measurements. 

For the occa­si­on of this col­la­bo­ra­ti­on, the stu­dio desi­gned a series of fur­ni­tu­re pie­ces. The wood is sawn by the wind; the yarn is dyed with natu­ral dyes, groun­ded by the colour mill.

Urban wind power

‘Wind Knit­ting Fac­to­ry’ is a wind powered knit­ting machi­ne that is atta­ched to the faca­de of a buil­ding. The blades embrace more than a meter in dia­me­ter, and the wind that is cached by this mill dri­ves the machi­ne to work. Like that a long scarf gets knit­ted down­ward along the buil­ding. When it is win­dy the machi­ne knits fast and with less wind the machi­ne knits slowly. 

Occa­sio­nal­ly the knit­wear gets ​‘har­ve­s­ted’ and trans­for­med into scar­ves. Every scarf gets a label which tells you the time and the date on which the wind made the scarf. This mobi­le wind fac­to­ry, which ope­ra­tes bet­ween the public and the pri­va­te space, illus­tra­tes a pro­duc­tion pro­cess and visua­li­zes what you can pro­du­ce with the pre­sent urban wind.

Merel Karhof and her Wind Knitting Factory

Mul­ti-talen­ted desi­gner Merel Kar­hof star­ted the brand to visua­li­se the sus­tainable ener­gy source wind. With the Wind Knit­ting Fac­to­ry Kar­hof bril­li­ant­ly illus­tra­tes a pro­duc­tion pro­cess by brin­ging the fac­to­ry into the high street and like that rea­li­ses on the spot crea­ti­on of lush (or should we say COSH! ?) pro­ducts pro­du­ced with the pre­sent urban wind. 

The result are stun­ning 100% lamb woo­len access­ories and tex­ti­le furniture!

After the dye­ing pro­cess, the ​‘Wind Knit­ting Fac­to­ry’ knits the yarns, and with each har­ve­st, the wood struc­tures are uphols­te­red. For this spe­cial event, Kar­hof built the new ​‘Wind Knit­ting Fac­to­ry 2.0’ that incor­po­ra­tes two new fea­tures; a pen­non, that gives the machi­ne the faci­li­ty to turn away from the wind when the speed gets too high, and a new mecha­nism that pulls the knit­wear down, the­r­e­fo­re allo­wing it to ope­ra­te independently.

Wind­works shows a pro­duc­tion tri­ptych bet­ween three wind­mills and it makes visi­ble what can be pro­du­ced with wind power. It shows how wind­mills working tog­e­ther can beco­me a com­ple­te and holi­stic industry.

Now we tho­rough­ly love Merel Kar­hof designs and pro­ducts! Just curious about some mate­ri­al trans­pa­ren­cy! Keep us pos­ted Merel. We love your style!

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