A secret chamber inside a mass of stone for the Sam Jacob Studio hall.
Everything Flows is the contribution by Sam Jacob Studio to the Soul of the City exhibition conceived by Platform Architecture & Design and curated by historian and critic of architecture Luca Molinari. The resulting “marble pavilion” explores the relationship between the geometry of form and the characteristic features of stone material. The design plan starts off from a square divided crossways into four smaller squares chamfered at the corners. As in reaches upwards, four cruciform walls emerge from the base to define the external structure of the pavilion; their internal intersections are perforated by arched openings that in term form a vaulted central space. The chamfering at the base of the square creates four angular openings that reveal, along the diagonal, the contrast between the external and internal geometries of these mirrored chambers and their simultaneous separation and interconnection. The geometrical contrast is matched by a substantial variation of the decorated face of the stone: the outer shell is 3D boss-processed to geometrically reflect the roughness of the “raw” stone, while the internal chambers are honed and polished, almost as if to reveal a precious, fossilised architecture inside a body of rock.

This work is implemented thanks to the know-how of Piero Zanella srl and its Renaissance Collection of marble materials: Ombra di Caravaggio®, Blu Masaccio, Perlato Angelico and Rosso Mantegna.
The exhibition – the core of The Italian Stone Theatre – presented research into the use of stone in architecture, inspiring seven international design studios flanked by seven companies in the Italian natural stone sector to interpret the “soul of the city” in accordance with the personal interpretation of each author.
Sam Jacob Studio, i cui lavori sono stati pubblicati e presentati in varie sedi internazionali, tra cui la Biennale di Architettura di Venezia nel 2016 e nel 2014; Jacob insegna architettura presso l’UIC di Chicago, è visiting professor presso la Yale School of Architecture, editorialista e critico (Dezeen, Art Review, Icon)
https://www.samjacob.com/index.php/design/everything-flows