The first production, produced in only 99 signed copies, was immediately sold out. The same thing happened for the second edition. Because the “Ripples” bench designed by Toyo Ito is a collector’s item.

The original version is made with five different types of wood, which when worked on the pantograph showing the polychrome effect, evoking the movement of a wave, forming anatomical spaces for the sittings.

The stone version, created for the Brand & Stone 2.0 edition at Marmomac 2019, aims to be a homage to the designer Toyo Ito, to reproduce, with the use of natural stone, the design of the original piece, extracting its natural polychromy from the stone.

Born in Japan in 1941, Ito was graduated at the University of Tokyo in 1965. In 1971 he opened his own studio in Tokyo, which changed its name in 1979 to Toyo Ito & Associati. He is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, a member of the Japanese Institute of Architecture and an Honorary Professor at the University of North London. His projects take nature’s inspiration, “from the air, from the water and from the wind”. For him, architecture “is not a tool” but “a meeting place for people’s feelings”. At the age of 71, he won the Pritzker Prize, the Nobel of architecture awarded by the Hyatt Foundation. Recognized for having experimented with new possible relationships between the shell and the structure, Toyo Ito has tried to blend the organic, natural approach with technological research. His goal is to ensure that his projects, once constructed, are contextualised and integrate well thanks to intangible and mobile elements.

Headquarters:
Via Antonio Carpenè, 17
33070 Brugnera (PN) Italy
Tel. +39 0434 1979100
web@horm.it

Headquarters:
Via Gallinaria, 14
16047 Moconesi (GE) Italy
Tel. +39 0185 92224
info@map-slate.com

Concept: Danilo Di Michele
Curated by Giorgio Canale

After huge success last year, collaboration between marble companies and major international design brands is renewed for 2019: this is the starting point for Brand & Stone 2.0.
This exhibition responds to the need to bring designers and major brands closer to the use of natural stone to produce objects and accessories included in their collections, demonstrating how it is possible to overcome the often widespread reticence of a commercial (costs, distribution, …) as well as a technical (weight, installation issues, …) nature in the use of this material.
The skills and technical-artistic knowledge of Italian stone companies consequently become available to prestigious furnishing companies, thereby collaborating to create unique indoor and outdoor projects for subsequent launch on the market. Natural stone thereby becomes a revolutionary and innovative material, readily offered to even the most discerning customers all over the world through everyday objects.
Brand & Stone 2.0 it is therefore not only an exhibition of excellent design objects in natural stone nor is it a mere experiment designed to exaggerate the potential of stone materials. It is a project promoting partnership and synergy between two worlds, natural stone and design.