Share
From 26 to 30 September this year, Marazzi opened the doors of its Sassuolo location to a large number of Italian and international visitors, to show them its spaces reinterpreted to create an experiential sequence recounting the brand’s production history and illustrating its latest new products.
Architectural ideas
Visitors were welcomed at the entrance to the production compound by a series of portals designed by Magma Studio.
These large backdrops expressed new ideas of urban and domestic spaces: a metaphysical dimension, made up of lights and shadows, textures and colours, in a visual language which communicated via the Marazzi products’ aesthetic identity.
This passage led guests into the spaces normally occupied by the laboratories and logistics and towards the showroom, transformed for the occasion into a real Design District. A succession of comfortable, multiform spaces where visitors from all over the world were able to network, explore the new collections and trends, and find out more about the brand and its genius for innovation and experimentation.
An open air showroom
The Marazzi showroom was renewed both indoors and outdoors, giving a total of more than 2,000 square metres, all with completely new installations.
A real “ceramics tailory”, for using an infinite range of colours, patterns, consistencies and light and 3D effects in a creative exercise with no limitations.
The installation previews and suggests trends and combinations. The four large Towers at the entrance to the space carry a genuine project for the combination of different sizes and surfaces, with contrasting or tone-on-tone shades. But the same also occurs in the new Grande collection area, entirely dedicated to the new slabs and the large range of surfaces and finishes, culminating in the Archilab, a library of hundreds of products, where different material effects, colours and surfaces can be mixed for any kind of project.
The outdoor space displays new installation ideas and material-effect finishes for ventilated walls and raised floors, the key features of the external portals. They both display solutions for latest-generation construction projects, also available with turnkey service.
Future on show at the Design Lab
In the Design Lab, conceived as a museum-style exhibit, the supports and large white surfaces placed all the emphasis on a single great protagonist: the new collection of Marazzi products. The sequence of large display boards placed around the perimeter of the previous laboratory constructed a visitor pathway with the aid of a large curved central partition. The exhibit was completed by a continual succession of wall shelves and a series of floor islands containing a large array of moodboards. Unexpected, elegant combinations of decors and consistencies revealed the new inspiration trends, and explored the latest products from Marazzi.
In continuity with the past
In the 1980s, the Crogiolo was Marazzi’s research centre for experimenting with craft techniques and arts applied to ceramic materials. A crucible for ideas, far ahead of its time, which welcomed artists, architects, photographers and fashion designers.
In continuity with the brand’s production history, in the Gallery visitors, guided by the company’s ceramic artists, were able to view the creation of crafted solutions, forms and graphic concepts. A succession of workbenches displayed “ready-made” creations featuring relief parts, printed decors and variations in geometrical shape, hues and shades, in tactile surfaces produced by craft techniques in an unbroken flow of creation and experimentation that has always interacted, within Marazzi, with industrial production processes and approaches.
The Top conquers space
The Design District visitor experience included a showroom entirely dedicated to The Top slabs, the collection of large-size porcelain stoneware in 6, 12 and 20 mm thickness intended for covering kitchen countertops, tables, backsplashes and furnishing solutions.
From the entrance reception area resembling the foyer of a luxury hotel, a series of variations on a theme extended over the nearby bookcase, the staircase and the partition walls, mixing The Top collection’s many material effects. The Kitchen and Living Room zone, just behind the reception area, was also designed to welcome guests, enabling them to observe a sequence of interiors completed by a hotel bedroom and a bathroom.
On all the perimeter walls and a number of totems, the large The Top space ended with an amazing sequence of slabs of 160×320 cm displaying all the material effects in the catalogue.
Styling: Irene Arescaldino
