Diamante Magico, 5+1AA for Casalgrande Padana. (ph. Giuseppe Maritati)

With the “Ceramic Tiles of Italy Playground” exhibition, organized by Edi. Cer. And set up a Triennale di Milano from April 14th to 19th, Confindustria Ceramica has left its mark at 2010 Milan’s Fuorisalone. The collection, comprised of original pieces, evokes the event “giocare con la ceramica di Bruno Munari” and will also be exhibited next autumn at Cersaie.
The installations, proposed by seven partner companies and made by as many designers, research contemporary living in the form of original public space solutions most specifically meant for free time and play. According to Aldo Colonetti, curator of the exhibition, the ceramic material is capable of interpreting with quality and authority the aesthetic-performing goal for contemporary cities, not only for its undisputed technical and physical properties but, most importantly, for its plastic versatility and chromatic variety allowed by the modular arrangement. The set up at Triennale, carried out by Studio Origoni e Steiner and completed with the outstanding illustration by Emanuele Luzzati, provided the perfect framework for that.
Form, colours and a variety of senses are the quality of the ceramic project, which, in harmony with childhood, fed creative food to the different installations.

Diamante Magico, 5+1AA for Casalgrande Padana.

The clearest case is “Diamante Magico”, a solution devised on behalf of Casalgrande Padana by 5+1 - Agenzia Architettura, where three-dimension, a glossy finish, arrangement flexibility mould the concepts taken form childhood play into reality – as “Froebelian gifts” – the very foundation to the design experience.
5+1 AA, founded by architects Alfonso Femìa and Gianluca Peluffo has offices in Genoa, Milan and Paris and boasts countless prestigious and visionary large-scale projects, such as the Nuovo Palazzo del Cinema di Venezia, an international tender awarded to the firm and Rudy Ricciotti, the Master Plan for Milan 2015 Expo, the office structures for Rho’s Sviluppo Sistema Fiera, tender awarded to the firm and Pietri Architectes, the Frigoriferi Milanesi area and the Nuova Agenzia Spaziale Italiana of Rome. This time the architects size themselves up to a “child-suited” object that bears with itself a new vision of ceramic products, as well as large-scale architectural efforts.
The work displayed at Triennale starts from two very simple orthogonal volumes that form a platform for interactive play and unveils a new spatial solution thanks to the shape of ceramics and the effect of combined volumes.
For the occasion 5+1 AA developed a special porcelain stoneware three-dimensional glossy element named Diamante R20 BOA in bundle with Casalgrande Padana; the three available versions stand out for a different slope at the top of the prism forming the relief. The hint is antique and timeless alike, the element is the noble and elite symbol in architectural, filtered through ceramic and Gio Ponti’s experience and hence brought to the surface of contemporary solutions.
At the base of Diamante Magico interactivity there’s the possibility of modifying the composition by moving the platform modules at will, not to mention the variability provided by the light effects. The result on the horizontal portion is a play of volumes and combination of forms that evoke the creation of a city skyline; the vertical wall, apparently a solid and one-piece monolith covered with ceramic elements, mirrors the light at different angles and creates a dynamic effect and an ever-changing diversity, further enhanced by the possibility, for some elements, to slide along the wall profile, jolting out of both sides, stand out and be evident when hit by the light.
The idea is that of a renewed three-dimension architectural surface made of ceramic, that is, changing, transformable, built around empty and filled space to be rearranged and made possible by diversely arranging three modules of the Diamante ceramic tile soon to be produced by Casalgrande Padana in three different colours: Bronze, Gold and Silver.

a cura di Veronica Dal Buono

Casalgrande Padana

5+1 AA