<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"View Slideshow\n\nOrdinary floors are about to get some extraordinary help from a handful of top-tier architects. Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Zaha Hadid, Robert A.M. Stern, Margaret McCurry, and Stanley Tigerman have designed rugs for Arzu Studio Hope's new Masters collection. However, Arzu's mission is about much more than making beautiful carpets\u2014the Chicago-based not-for-profit organization is dedicated to improving the lives of Afghan women weavers and their families, based on a model of social entrepreneurship.\n\nPinterestFacebookFormer Goldman Sachs executive and founder of Arzu Studio Hope, Connie K. Duckworth.\n\nConnie K. Duckworth, a retired partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs, founded Arzu in June 2004 after visiting war-torn Afghanistan as a representative of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council. \"The seminal moment for me was when we visited a bombed-out, Soviet-style cinder-block building that was partially destroyed, and there were dozens of widows and young children squatting there for the winter,\" in 20-degree temperatures, says Duckworth. \"What I saw on the ground was so compelling that I came back and committed to doing something to try to help.\"\n\nToday, Arzu has not only created more than 700 well-paying jobs for Afghan women (arzu means \"hope\" in Dari), but also spearheads a wide range of programs that improve access to education, health care, clean water, shelter, and other basics of life.\n\nPinterestFacebookThanks to the not-for-profit organization, Afghan women weavers receive a steady income as well as access access to health care and education.\n\nFor the Masters collection of rugs, Arzu's most creatively ambitious effort yet, the organization first reached out to Tigerman and McCurry, who in turn called on some of their favorite architect friends. The result is a diverse array of designs, from Hadid's looping abstract line drawings to Stern's pattern inspired by the volutes of Ionic capitals.\n\nMichael Graves says Arzu's mission immediately resonated with him, so he was pleased to design Arabesque 1 and 2, two patterns that feature free-form shapes loosely arranged in colorful compositions. \"Always when I do rugs, I imagine people entering the room from various directions,\" says Graves, who initially painted the patterns, and sought to give them no clear sense of up or down. \"I wanted something that was a field pattern. The whole thing attempts to be spatial with these floating fragments.\"\n\nThe rugs are available by custom order, to the trade through Coalesse, and direct to consumers through Arzu Studio Hope.\n\nClick here to see the complete collection of rugs."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/arzu-studio-hope-rugs-frank-gehry-zaha-hadid>