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Marmomacc Meets Design: “Hybrid and Flexible”
Excellent press reviews and positive feed-back from experts in the stone industry for the 3rd edition of the expo-event
Marmomacc Meets Design: “Hybrid and Flexible”.
Hybrid, flexibility, contamination, metamorphosis and processing: these were the stimulating research keys proposed to 13 companies, in close collaboration with 16 designers, to develop the new topic at Marmomacc Meets Design.
The occasion to follow up the innovations at this just-closed edition enables us to emphasise the original and innovative approach to stone products that emerged while strolling around Halls 6, 8 and 10 at the Verona Exhibition Centre.
On entering
Hall 6, the stand of
Il Casone saw the young architect
Francesco Steccanella majestically express his detailed passion for research into materials. Like notes in a musical score, Steccanella alternated slivers of marble with fine wooden inlays, metal and glass to create a rhythmic, sensorial, tactile and chromatic counterpoint.
Close by, the exhibition area of
Marsotto hosted the new
“Editions” collection of multi-functional furnishing objects designed by
James Irvine set ideally in a very minimal garden with swimming pool. On the other hand, the
“Hybrid” by
Tobia Scarpa for
Testi Fratelli saw marble emanate warmth as the finishing of an ancient fireplace with a huge stove and smokestack. The stove in Carrara marble, on the one hand, dominated the space like an imposing totem while, on the other hand, the chimney almost turned it into a ‘recessed' element. In some ways, the metal body of the chimney could have closed on itself in order to valorise the elegant marble framework.
Architects
Marta Laudani and Marco Romanelli presented a sculpture-seat for
Mele Design di Fratelli Mele. As a hybrid between art and nature, the architects' pencils "carved" the ‘noble block’ of leccese limestone.
The delightful combination between the technical excellence of
Budri and the ingenious creativy of
Patricia Urquiola exceeded all expectations, creanting a carpet for a magical Eden, where a cascade of colourful, oversize flowers embraced visitors.
Marco Piva, on the other hand, created a rarefied lounge for
Cava Romana. Comfortable seats and elegant small tables delicately filled a space, suspended on imposing columns in marble and metal, designed as a high-tech limbo for an ideal fitness centre of the future.
Hall 6 was left through the ‘stand-museum’ by
Alberto Campo Baeza, which presented a lyrical wall set-up with the entire collection of articles produced by
Pibamarmi. Here, the interior of the structure provided an oasis of silence and meditation. Immersed in penumbra, visitors could stop and contemplate the slow passage of luminous ellipses reverberating on the surface of the stone.
Proceeding to
Hall 8, Michele De Lucchi presented for
MGM Furnari his “Geological Decor” and “The Trampoline Tower”. Both in lava, the first was an outstanding geometrical game in a wall cladding, while the second was a piece of furniture comprising a series of overlapping trampolines. A completely different, sinuous structure, in wood and marble, was designed by
Craig Copeland and
Turan Duda for a new exhibition interpretation of the
Henraux stand. The interior of the structure-belt also contained furnishing accessories designed specifically to create a total work.
Not to mention. Homage to the Palladian tradition, in a fusion between the classic age of scenic space and contemporary objects, saw
Luca Scacchetti develop the “Hybrid and Flexible” topic on the stand of
Grassi Pietre.
Hall 10 saw
Santa Margherita highlight the
“Flowering Stone” project by
Aldo Cibic, which sought to humanise architecture by contaminating it with nature.
The poetic interpretation of young architects
Marco Fagioli and
Emanuel Gargano involved flexing stone as if it were a fabric. Modularity characterised the perimeter of the exhibition stand of
Vaselli Marmi in a sinuous development of volumes achieved through the rhythmic scansion of irregular alternations of thin strips and delicate voids.
The proposal by architect
Francesco Lucchese in the set-up for
Scalvini Marmi, on the other hand, took the opposite direction through a lively space with columns in marble and plexiglas that seemingly dissolved into the reflections in the shiny metallic flooring and ceiling.
Verona, 16 / 11 / 2009
