New Marble Generatio.
Is it possible to think about a new generation of high-quality design objects produced on a large scale thanks to new stone design and processing technologies and the extraordinary opportunities they have to offer? Looking at the New Marble Generation exhibition, one can certainly say “Yes”. The market availability of increasingly advanced tools for modelling during the design stage as well as production itself has highlighted extraordinary opportunities for transforming stone materials into complex artefacts in technical and formal terms capable of achieving performance levels similar to other materials more generally used in design traditions with comparable characteristics as regards precision, production speed, reduced waste and, consequently, sustainability. Thanks to new generation digital systems, highly sophisticated design is potentially able to produce – exclusively with machinery – artefacts that until now were the result of mechanical systems based on craftsmanship, thereby bringing them into the world of industrial replicability. New Marble Generation compared these concepts with internationally renowned designers and architects together with a number of stone industry companies particularly interested in new research paths. This research gave rise to prototypes for interior and exterior furniture components that were displayed in a dedicated space inside Hall 1. The designers worked across several theme-based sections, adapting the stone materials chosen by the exhibition curators. Furnishing items consequently included such as Giorgio Canale’s maxi Gong lamp for Cereser or the modular Hole coffee table by Paolo Ulian with Nikolaus Bagnara. There were several solutions for tables: Elic with sculptural bases by Setsu & Shinobi Ito for GDA Marmi&Graniti and Pedra by Massimo Iosa Ghini for Grassi Pietre; the composite item from the Bislapis collection by Marcello Morandini developed with Remuzzi Marmi Bergamo was created from a combination of very thin marble and onyx materials bonded together. the Hyparwall in stone by Giuseppe Fallacare with Pimar was flanked by these benches: Sampietrina by Philippe Nicro with Euro Porfidi, and the iconic Play by Denis Santachiara for Paolo Costa, which took the Icon Award 2016 “for the significant inventive value in typological terms”. The New Marble Generation exhibition was curated by Raffaello Galiotto and Vincenzo Pavan as part of The Italian Stone Theatre projected created by Marmomacc with the support of the Ministry for Economic Development (MISE), ICE-Italian Trade Agency and Confindustria Marmomacchine with the aim of promoting excellence in Italian natural stone and technology fields.
