W-AP-60A-5
Unraveling Stories by Giorgia Lupi Contemporary Flat-Weave Area Rug
What Makes This Contemporary Flat-Weave Area Rug Special
Created in collaboration with data artist Giorgia Lupi, every detail of Unraveling Stories is rooted in real cultural traditions and built for everyday life.
- A rug with a story: The Unraveling Stories Contemporary Flat-Weave Area Rug uses real UNESCO data turned into a visual pattern by data artist Giorgia Lupi. Each rug includes a printed tag that explains the design and the 59 global endangered textile-making techniques it represents.
- Looks like art, works like a rug: The bold, striped rug pattern feels like a modern art piece but is meant to be lived on. It adds color, meaning, and movement to any space.
- Easy to live with: Made for real life, this contemporary rug is stain-resistant, easy to clean, and fully machine washable. Great for homes with kids, pets, or just a lot going on.
- Soft underfoot, low profile: The flat woven polyester-chenille surface is soft but thin enough to fit under doors and furniture, offering both aesthetic appeal and practicality.
- Made with recycled materials: A recycled cotton back is a better choice for the planet and safe for your floors, including hardwood and tile. Best used with a rug pad (sold separately).
Pairs well with
Unraveling Stories is a data-driven rug project that weaves together global heritage, memory, and the power of visual language.
About Unraveling Stories
Unraveling Stories is a reflection of Well Woven’s belief that thoughtful design can preserve the past while shaping the future; that the right rug invites conversation, makes space for memory, and turns your floor into something more.
Together in collaboration with data-humanist Giorgia Lupi, we turned to UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, a living archive of endangered crafts, and focused on preserving 59 textile-making techniques that span continents, generations, and identities. These traditions, some centuries old, are translated here into a visual language of form and color. Each line, each burst of hue, carries meaning, creating a data-driven rug that reads less like a pattern and more like a coded document of global craftsmanship.
The result is a bold, striped rug that invites a closer look. It feels modern at first glance, but carries layers of history just beneath the surface, inviting one to think about design not just as decoration, but as a medium for awareness and reflection. A jagged segment might echo the motion of a lost weaving method from Southeast Asia. A cluster of colored strips might symbolize a technique passed down matrilineally in West Africa. These are histories most people will never read in a book or see in a museum. At Well Woven, they live underfoot in a medium both practical and poetic.
Though grounded in research, Unraveling Stories is not academic. It is artful and contemporary expression designed to live in the modern home. Each area rug is stain-resistant and machine washable for easy cleaning. The flat, woven surface– available in two color palettes, each offering a different mood but that tell the same story– is soft to the touch and low to the ground for convenient placement under furniture and in doorways. Each area rug arrives with a printed tag, unpacking the data behind the design.
This is a piece of decor that doesn’t just ask to be considered. It asks to be seen.
Meet the Designer: Giorgia Lupi
Giorgia Lupi is an acclaimed Italian designer, author, and pioneer in the field of data humanism, a philosophy that looks beyond numbers to reveal the human stories behind them.
Her work has been featured by The New York Times, MIT Media Lab, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where some of her interactive data displays are part of the permanent collection.
With Unraveling Stories, Lupi and her team at Pentagram New York brought this vision to life by researching textile traditions in decline, mapping their characteristics, locations, and histories into an artistic visual language.
Each segment of the rug’s design is intentionally crafted to represent a unique tradition. From warp to weft, Unraveling Stories is a project of passion and an invitation to walk upon a craft once almost forgotten.
Visualizing the Invisible
Working from data collected by UNESCO, our team transformed 59 endangered textile-making traditions into a visual language across the Unraveling Stories rug pattern. Colors correspond to sources of threats and fiber. Linear elements represent the age of the textile-making technique and level of threat. The placement of these forms help reflect the location of each tradition.
To help you decode this, we have included a printed diagram and key with each rug. It breaks down how to read the design and trace the data that inspired it.
We invite you to take a moment, look closer, and unravel the stories woven into every thread.
If you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact us. We'll get back to you as soon as possible, within 24 hours on weekdays.
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Unraveling Stories Rug Care
Unpacking
Each Unraveling Stories rug is flatwoven and arrives folded for shipping, so some creasing is natural. These will typically relax within 5–7 days. To speed up the process, roll the rug with the pattern side facing out and gently massage any creases.
Please note: due to the artisanal nature of rug production, slight size variations (up to 5%) are normal—consider it part of the story your rug tells.
Cleaning & Long-Term Care
Vacuum regularly with a non-beater bar vacuum. For spills, remove excess and blot with a clean cloth dampened with lukewarm water. Repeat with a solution of water and detergent. Finish by blotting with water and a clean white cloth.
For long term soiling, or a particularly difficult stain, you may need to have your rug cleaned by a professional. Be sure to let them know what made the stain, as well as the construction and fiber content of your rug.
Rug Pad
We recommend using a rug pad with Unraveling Stories rugs to reduce slipping and extend the life of your rug. Non-slip and felted rug pads can keep your rugs in place and prevent them from bunching and sliding while children or pets are playing or during normal daily use.
