The New Karnak installation comes in the shape of a slanting stone wedge, with Ivory White Vicenza Stone steps that rise towards a narrow beam of light and are reflected on a polished floor.

At the same time evoke – through the ambiguous artifice of a scale model – the “new pyramids” of contemporary cities, leaning towards the search for a possible future.

Born in Milan in 1955, he received his B.S.A.D from the M.I.T. in 1978 and graduated in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano in 1979. He teaches Architecture and Urban Design at the Faculty of Architecture of Milan “Architecture and Society” and is a PhD Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. Was a visiting professor at the Syracuse University in Florence in 1989 and 1990 and at Zurich’s ETH in 1997 and 1998. He participated in the organisation and set-up of the 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th Triennale di Milano and curated the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014. In collaboration with the Cino Zucchi Architetti design studio, he redesigned the site of the former Junghans factory in Venice, designed residential units and offices for the former Alfa Romeo-Portello area in Milan, supervised the renovation and expansion of the Automobile Museum of Turin and residential buildings in the former fruit and vegetable market in Bologna.

Headquarters:
Via Madonetta, 2
36024 Nanto (Vicenza) – Italy
Tel. +39.0444.639092
Fax +39.0444.730071
info@grassipietre.it

Curated by Vincenzo Pavan

An exhibition experimentation and creativity in the use of natural stone that seeks to promote “Made in Italy” in this field through the interpretations of prestigious international designers. The act of reaching upwards, in architecture as in urban spaces, has always been an intriguing challenge for architects, as well as a test of skill in demonstrating a designer’s technical and creative skills.
Today as in the past, natural stone – more than other materials – has proved to be ideal for experiments in this context. Stone materials were used for the most ingenious and richly expressive staircases, from Baroque to Art Nouveau, from classic to modern. Similarly, natural stone lends itself to modelling ramps, paths and sloping, structurally complex and visibly steep surfaces. The exhibition seeks to generate new experiences and new interpretations of stone materials through input from internationally renowned architects and designers and groud-breaking Italian companies operating in the stone industry. Their collaboration led to a search for new forms and creative solutions for key construction elements, as well as an exploration of unsuspected technical and expressive qualities of a material boasting such ancient traditions.