Federica Tondato was born in Torino, Italy. She studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London, receiving a Masters degree in design at the Domus Academy in Milan, and a Masters degree in architecture from Columbia in 1995. A resident of New York for over 20 years, she opened FEDORA DESIGN in 2000, designing and producing rugs and tapestries. She considers a carpet to be architecture; while two dimensional, it has the power to project the third dimension, thus defining and creating space. The designs are influenced by earth’s topography and patterns hidden in nature, both on a microscopic and macroscopic dimension. These rugs are hand embroidered using the chain stitch technique, in India, and hand-knotted in Nepal.