(February 2012)

The concept is the work of designer Raffaello Galiotto as curator in cooperation with colleague-tradesmen and companies who helped realize the drafts in stone. Natural stone defines the character of many Italian cities and historic places. Designer-magazine Ottagono also participated.

Raffaello Galiotto (Italian)

Sun, Rimini

As was to be expected, communication was one of the central themes of the project. And since communication has a lot to do with commuting, mobility was the centre of focus of many discussions: space for bicycles was developed by designer Roberto Giacomucci in cooperation with StaminalStone.

„Buky“ was the name of one bicycle parking lot – a stout perforated pillar. The bike lock is meant to be threaded through the hole to secure the bike. Another was „Ciottolo“ (Cobblestone) – a metal frame serving at once as a place to lean the bike and an opportunity to interlope the lock.

„Carpet“ was more of a challenge. Five bikes can be parked in the folds of the stone. The objects can be bolted to the ground.

The object was conceived for the town of Senigallia. The material used was Bardiglio Nuvalato marble mined by StaminalStone locally in Carrara. The project was realized by Anzilotti company.

Roberto Giacomucci (Italian)

StaminalStone

Anzilotti

Designer Manolo Bossi’s installation with benches and planters is in keeping with Italian art history: „Romans“ was designed after the Verona’s San Zeno Cathedral. Bossi used Grolla Cream and Grolla Pink marble both polished. Realization was by Marmi Faedo.

Manolo Bossi

Marmi Faedo

„Barena“ by Pio&Tito Toso was an example of nomen est omen. Barene is where land and sea meet in Venice, flooded at high tide and reverting to salt marsh-land with run-offs at low tide.

The designers saw these interesting natural formations mirrored in Venice’s pavement where stone slabs meet mortises. The urban furniture levitates like sandbanks from the beach. The designers conceived cubic benches and trash bins, round lighting elements and fountains as well as indentations for drainage.

The material used was Trachite Euganae found all over Venice. The work was carried out by an enterprise bearing the same name.

Pio&Tito Toso

Trachite Euganea

Freeing stone from its traditional role as a material for brazen monuments and turning it to a material for citizens is the driving idea behind „ZOT“ by architects Pierluigi Molteni, realized in Pietra Serena sandstone for Piazza della Repubblica in the town of Tresigallo.

Molteni’s design is a series of oblong elements in standard sizes which can be combined to chatting corners or can be placed to form a meandering line from one end of the plaza to the other. Steel elements can be integrated to form back rests or little tables or pole-shaped lanterns. Bicycles can find slots in the stone to stabilize their position.

Pierluigi Molteni (Italian)

Il Casone

Designers like to think up dual functions for urban furniture e.g. seating which simultaneously serves as a planter. Diego Chilò conceived a vase („Sengio“) around which citizens can be seated and in the upper rim of which plants can be integrated.

The material used was Pietra di Vicenza often encountered in Vicenza; Renaissance architects have frequently placed their mark there. Peotta Armando produces the rings for the „Vase“ which can be mixed and matched to various heights. The surface treatment was carried out by Ecobeton.

Diego Chilò

Peotta Armando

Ecobeton

Alessandra Pasetti designed „Holywater“ to serve a dual function. Her aim: to design a fountain which doubles as a bench around the outer rim. The water receptacle and the foot of the fountain are designed to allow animals to quench their thirst.

Cobblestone paving reflects a particularity of Isola della Pescharia in Treviso: this is a fish market, so circles in the pavement symbolize water drops.

The designer used Grolla marble with polished and sand blasted surfaces. It has same colour as the houses around the plaza. Also implemented: a black stone. Marmi Faedo realized the project.

Alessandra Pasetti

Marmi Faedo

Another project („Connect chair“) was brought to life by Romolo Stanco and Paver company.

Photos: Companies / Raffaello Galiotto

(January 2012)

When „Bolla“ (bubble) lights seemingly stared you down like an evil eye from another planet one might think that aliens were at work: at the Cersaie fair circular surfaces looked back at visitors from the marble wall with a dark iris and peripheral light source – colour and light intensity vary seemingly at will.

But don’t panic: it wasn’t the work of aliens. „Bolla“ is a co-production of Italian Incontroardito and designers Domenico de Palo. A sheet of glass is sandwiched between two slabs of marble. Circular cut-outs and relief surfaces form concave and convex eyes respectively framed in LED-lights illuminating the surfaces.

LED is not a distant star but the acronym for light emitting diode: small semiconductors that shine while consuming far less power than other types of light. Another highlight of these tiny light units is that they can be programmed to emit a variety of different colours of light. In the case of „Bolla“ the LEDs are individually programmable allowing interesting effects.

The installation can be used in a wide variety of ways – not just for wall lighting. A table was already developed for example. Natural stone facades could also be illuminated and produce delightful cinematographic effects.

We recommend a visit to the Incontroardito website.

Domenico de Palo

Photos/Renderings: Incontroardito

(December 2011)

„Wave Gold“ derives its appearance with the help of pulverized metal lending a golden shine.

Antolini Luigi & C.

(December 2011)

This year’s trade fair included more than 300 exhibitors from 17 countries presenting tools and machinery for stonemasonry as well as stone of interest to architects. What with its near 4% sustained economic growth, the country’s lies well above other European countries thanks in part to the European Soccer Championships to be hosted by Poland next year in cooperation with neighbouring Ukraine.

That is the main impetus for investment in transportation infrastructure and tourism. Experts estimate that a minimum 1 billion Złoty (~ 225 million €, ~ 304 million US-$) will be invested in building hotels with about 100 new hotels opening yearly for the next years.

The trade journal Nowy Kamieniarz once again presented the winners of its design competition directed at students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and Łodz to produce every-day consumer products in stone. Companies cooperating in the project produced the prototypes.

This year saw only one winner, Jarosłav Kosek, who produced a Bee-table with a honeycomb-structure and the O-Sink, made of three laminated layers. Realization was by BW Wiśniewscy und Rogala companies respectively.

We also show several drafts which did not win. Students and participating companies can be contacted through Szymon Paz from Nowy Kamieniarz (Mail).

The trade journal Świat Kamienia also presented the biannual „Kariatyda“-Prize. In the category architecture the prize went to Pamir Company for stonemasonry in Warsaw’s Chopin-Museum.

In the sculpture category the prize went to sculptor Tadeusz Biniewicz for his statue of King Casimir the Great in Kowal. In the category gravestones the prize went to the work of stonemason Andrej Weremczuk at the Włodawa-cemetary. A special prize went to Piramida Company for its Buddhist stupa in granite situated in Greece. Contact: Adriana Czekaj (Mail).

The fair’s social highlight took place on day two when the Organizer’s new „Klaudius“-Prize was presented for the first time. Award-winners and companies are presented on the fair’s webpage.

Kamień-Stone, 2012, 7. – 10.11. (1,2)

(December 2011) For traditionalists among stonemasons and architects, the statement must be provocative: „Marble is a material, whose potential has yet to be discovered.“ They were, after all, responsible for a constant stream of innovative implementations for natural stone over the thousands of years.

We found this statement in the catalogue of the project „Luce e Materia“ (Light and Matter). Its aim: to unite the juxtaposed elements to a fruitful alliance. The experiment was brought to life by the Solubema (Portugal)/Merbes-Sprimont (Belgium)-Group under direction of Italian designer Raffaello Galiotto and presented at the Marble Forum in Hall 7B of this year’s Marmomacc.

We are looking forward to observe how the ideas become marketable products.

The project revolved around two types of marble at opposite ends of the spectrum: Noir Belge (Belgium Black) from Belgium, dense and black as night, currently mined underground; and Portuguese Vigaria, white with veins and translucent, surface-mined.

The designer played on the various aspects, which might allow the two so very different types of stone combined with light to come together.

E.g.: highly polished, Noir Belge can serve as a mirror – the stone’s surface can be worked to a singularly high-gloss polished finish, though the suitability of a black surface for use as a mirror is, admittedly, limited due to the high light absorption of black as a background material – a theme occasionally discussed in literature and art.

As an introduction to the Marble Forum Galiotto chose the distortion of concave and convex mirrors. The first room of the presentation referred to the famous mirror in Jan van Eyck’s (1434) „The Arnolfini Portrait“: the masterpiece shows a mirror in the background in which not only the bride and groom can be seen from behind but which also reflects an image of the artist – a remarkable play on perspective for the time.

Galiotto created a mirror of black marble, in which convex and concave finished surfaces distort the image – an effect raised to a higher power by the unusual material.

Anamorphosis was the theme of the second room – a technique often used in Renaissance art as a means to convey hidden messages: on first glance a painting seems to relay a distorted image yet from a particular angle the message converges.

Galiotto had the mirror cut with the help of modern water jet-technology thus showing confusing white shapes in white reflected off the black floor. When projected upon a pillar in the centre of the room, the mirror image suddenly depicted a bouquet of white roses.

The climax of the optical illusion was a bouquet of real long-stem white roses placed atop the pillar.

By the way: dim light conceals the truth to some extent: the size of Noir Belge blocks is limited, so the pillar was made of two pieces. The joint, however, was entirely concealed by the darkness of the room.

No less unusual: Galiotto’s experiments with white Vigaria marble – a variation in the last room. The surface of one stone wall was worked – lit from the front, only this perspective was apparent. Lit from behind, however, the picture of a child in it’s mother’s womb could be seen reinforcing the wall’s structure and the marble’s natural veins on the inner side.

Another wall integrated vertical joints made up of squares, creating an effect of light and dark similar to office sky-scrapers by night.

Translucency was a theme in another room. The designer showed lamp shades in white, translucent marble by Italian based Serafini Marmo Luce.

In an interview Galiotto brought his ideas to the point: „There is new life in marble.“

An Italian and English-language catalogue describes the concept with the help of numerous photos. It can be ordered free of charge through the project’s website.

Last but not least, food for thought: here the artist Tom Kristen (German) integrated LED-lights into Plexiglas rods.

Raffaello Galiotto

Solubema, Merbes-Sprimont 1, 2

Serafini Marmo Luce

Photos: Luce e Materia

(November 2011)

Now to the presentations. Arthà Company showed their „Transparent Stone Mosaic“. Here 18 mm thick marble is sandwiched between and integrated in glass plates. It could be used as a window exposing the stone’s bright colour and multi-facetted inner structure. Scrap stone could be used giving it a new lease on life.

Integrated LED-lights allow „Transparent Stone Mosaic“ to be implemented for interior design as well, e.g. in bathrooms, as table tops or lampshades to name but a few possibilities. Since mosaic always has joints, the background can remain visible and add to the effect.

Design by Dr. Alessandra Ticozzi. The product is patented.

Arthà

Designer Paolo Ulian showed his work commissioned by Le Fablier Company of Italy. Renowned for its wooden furniture and excellent craftsmanship, Le Fablier invited the artist from Carrara to design an object in marble. One of the challenges was to design a piece which could be produced with little or no waste.

„Numerica“ („Numerical“) was the name Ulian gave his bookshelf giving flooring tiles 35 x 35 cm a new meaning. He developed modules picking up on the Roman numerals I, II, II and IV.

Another bookshelf bears the name „Primitiva“ („Primitive“) using the same flooring tiles which can be assembled to cubes, or shelves.

„Concentrico“ („Concentric“) is the name given to tables made of 90° modules measuring 60 x 60 cm made of concentric ring and cut by means of a water jet.

„Autarcio“ („Autarchic“) is a three-layered marble tabletop each of which has a identical but offset cut-out. The cut-out material is integrated into the table’s legs. The tables measure 50 x 50 x cm and 50 x 100 cm respectively.

„Brecciato“ („Breccia“) also began as a conglomerate of a variety of stones turned tables. The table top is seemingly broken into several pieces, each of which is mounted on wheels and can be rejoined like pieces of a puzzle. Each of the pieces has at least two straight sides and at least one irregular side.

„Numerica“, „Concentrico“ and „Brecchiato“ are limited editions.

Le Fablier

Paolo Ulian

„Caldia Cube“ was another presentation where Marmi e Graniti d’Italia Sicilmarmi Company, commissioned three artists, three designer and 3 architects to create an object made of marble. See our story on the project in the July issue.

Marmi e Graniti d’Italia Sicilmarmi

Seating for public streets was developed by the Milan Polytechnic School designed by Massimiliano Nocchi and Andrea Giacomono Tazzini and produced by Up Group Company of Italy.

Another design project, not exhibited at the Marble Forum, was Laboratorio del Marmo Company’s book shelf presented at the fair.

Laboratorio del Marmo

„Luce e Materia“ („Light and Matter“) by Solubema Company of Portugal and Merbres-Sprimont of Belgium will be presented in a subsequent issue.

(November 2011)

They named the wall module-line „Pelle Pietra“ („Stone-skin“). The range is wide, from calf-leather to bull-hide and from travertine to onyx. The enchantment, to a great extent, lies in the unexpected similarities unimaginable when beholding tanned hides or cut rock by themselves.

„Piuma“ („Feather“), „Quadro“ („Painting“), „Marea” („Tides”), „Tondo“ („Circle“), „Orma“ („Track“) are the names of the 5 current models with others on the drawing board. Each model is available in a variety of stone types. Some on the stone slabs are translucent and can be lit from behind for special effect.

The fact that the three companies’ paths crossed is due to their location in the Valle del Chiampo at the foot of the Alps where leather and natural stone are the main branches of trade.

Prodital Leather

FMG Shapes (Farinon Marmi Graniti)

Raffaello Galiotto

Photos: Raffaello Galiotto

Update: Video

Update: Video-Interviews with the designers

(October 2011) Stone-Ideas.com reports from Marmomacc Meets Design in an Audio-Slideshow of 3:50 minutes. Klick here.

Piba Marmi
Design: Kjetil Thorsen, Snohetta,
Photos: Piba Marmi, Marmomacc Meets Design, Wikimedia Commons

Regione Puglia, Ewa Jankowska (Mail)
Design: Studio Marco Piva
Photos: Wikimedia Commons, Marmomacc Meets Design, Stone-Ideas.com

Grassi Pietre
Design: Setsu & Shinobu
Photos: Stone-Ideas.com, Marmomacc Meets Design
 

Testi Fratelli
Design: Philippe Nigro
Photos: Testi Fratelli, François Coquerel
 

Lithos Design
Design: Raffaello Galiotto
Stone: Travertino Sant’Andrea
Photos: Lithos Design, Marmomacc Meets Design, Stone-Ideas.com

 
Budri
Design: Patricia Urquiola
Photos: Stone-Ideas.com, Alessandro Paderni

 
Citco
Design: Studio Laviani
Photos: Marmomacc Meets Design/Alberto Parise, Ennevi Foto

Margraf
Design: Flavio Albanese
Photos: Stone-Ideas.com, Marmomacc Meets Design
 

Reneszansz Köfaragó Zrt
Design: Giuseppe Falacara, Universities of Bari and Budapest
Photos: Stone-Ideas.com, Ennevi Foto, Marmomacc Meets Design

(October 2011)

The model „Jules Verne“ also contains a small piece of the earth’s only natural satellite visible though a bull’s eye at 9 o’clock. The collection was awarded a Red-Dot-Design-prize this year albeit for the innovative design in handling by means of levers rather than for the implementation of outer space accessories.

But back to the space stones. The tiny pieces of moon rock really do stem from the surface of luna even though they were not brought back to earth by Earth’s moon walkers.

They were catapulted to earth as meteorites and that is what makes the rock so special: it was chipped off the surface of the moon when an asteroid hit its surface and, probably after a long journey in space, it was finally caught in planet Earth’s gravitational field coming to rest in the Oman’s Dhofar desert in 2001 according to the Meteoritical Bulletin.

Chips off the old neighbour’s block are much more scarce than meteoritic rock from outer space.

Going one step further, „Astralis“ has an additional clock-face in which four slices of meteoritic rock are inlayed. Here again a slice of Dhofar 459 was implemented as well as a piece of Jiddat al Harasis 479 from Mars, one from Itqiy formed close to the sun and last but not least one piece from Sahara 99555 aged over 4.5 billion years and older than the entire solar system. It could stem from Mercury.

Last year’s novelty also revolves around stone, time and space. The model bears the name „Jurassic Tourbillon“. It has a dial comprising pieces of petrified dinosaur bones around 150 million year old and found in North America.

This year’s new model „Geograph Rainforest“ with two chronograph counter faces made of fossilized palm wood come 70 million years old. The company supports projects for the preservation of the tropical rain forests of Malaysia with the proceeds.

Louis Moinet Company was named after the famous watch-maker (1768-1853), Swiss by birth he emigrated to Paris where he became art professor and finally worked as a consultant for Abraham-Luis Breguet. Breguet was one of the foremost inventors of modern time-pieces.

The company has its headquarters in Sait-Blaise in Switzerland. It produces no more than 1,000 pieces of each model / year, some of which are produces as limited editions produced 60 or even as little as 12 times each.

Louis Moinet

Red Dot

Meteoritical Bulletin

Photos: Louis Moinet

(October 2011)

The largest of the dog houses is 40 cm wide, 55 cm high and 70 cm long. Two smaller models are also available. The floor and walls are wood-clad on the interior for maximum comfort and easy cleaning. They are removable. There are ventilation holes on the back wall as well as one drainage hole.

A number of variations were created such as shed roofs, steps or side wings off the main building. There are, however, no doors – the lion’s den remains open, so to speak.

Bird houses are mounted on obelisks, chimneys or turrets. Next to them, bird baths and watering basins.

Travertine by Arredo di Pietra, producer and the designer put some thought to dirt and odour resistance. The stone is treated with the Redoxstone system coating it with nano-particles, in this case titanium dioxide or titanium (IV) oxide. This naturally occurring oxide of titanium can oxidize oxygen and organic materials directly giving it sterilizing, deodorizing and anti-fouling properties. The properties were discovered and developed by the Italian Infinity TiO2 Lab.

It remains to be seen how well these homes are accepted by their destined inhabitants. But conflicts are predictable if animals like their new homes: children will want to play house there as well.

Woof woof.

Arredo di Pietra 

Raffaello Galiotto 

Infinity TiO2 Lab

Photos: Raffaello Galiotto