Outdoors: at the Milano Design Week, a new product by Nardi
With a patented system and durable, sustainable materials, Plano is Nardi's signature lounger designed by Raffaello Galiotto.
"The Pico project started with a very simple idea. We love ceramic and we had done many projects with it. We like the sensuality of the material. Its depth, the texture....
On the other hand, what we hate in ceramic tile is the fact that the earth—ceramics—is usually covered by a thin coating that conceals the material's true nature. This superimposition makes us lose the very perception of the material itself which is treated, in this way, only as a support for a layer of paint.
We were interested in the fact that ceramics would be machined...and that's it...with no additional finishing processes. In other words, the idea was that the tiles would come off the production line already finished in order to preserve the intrinsic quality of the material itself.
It must be said that a decisive element in the project was seeing the machine that makes the tiles. It is a kind of 500-meter long monster: the material goes in as powder and comes out as the finished product. From the technical point of view, this is amazing and it influenced our work.
The question we asked ourselves was how to treat the material as such and highlight its density, its texture, its intrinsic quality ... Our goal was to maintain the raw appearance of traditional handmade flooring in clay or concrete, expressing the natural characteristics of ceramics.
This was the beginning.
Then, after this first phase, it was just a matter of answering some simple questions, like how not to differentiate between indoor or outdoor uses, in other words how to develop a solution that could adapt to all conditions and so forth. It was a very logical and consequential path—a sequence of decisions based on precise questions.
Recently in London, on the occasion of the Textile Field installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum, I was surprised to observe the sensuality of the bricks that clad the city's historic buildings. We're interested in the same material’s warmth, sensuality and depth
We spent much time figuring out how to make the dots, to find a mechanical way to reproduce them and also to find tools that would allow us to obtain a surface that is not too regular, to create a kind of vibration....
We made an infinite number of tests, sketches, and trials before we were sure of the result. Once the question of the dots was defined, we started to make drawings, tests, experiments with charcoal like the kind that Degas and the 19th century painters used in their drawings.
I was intrigued by the "dusty" sign that it leaves on the surface. I have done many experiments with frottage (a tracing technique) and so on. We really made an infinite number of samples. It started in this way.
For example, we came to the idea of dots after working with an endless series of lines and other signs. We were interested only in breaking from the idea of decoration.
Then, we added two colors, red and blue, corresponding to the texture of the dots in the background or as a base color. The colors highlight the raised effect, creating soft shadows and giving the tiles a colder or warmer tonality as desired.
The colors were really the hardest part. Until the question of color, it was all quite logical. Color is more 'artificial'. We came to the definition of the red and the blue in an empirical way through many experiments. There was no rationale to it; but I think they show a certain charm, and this serves to resolve the contradictions. It was all very instinctive."
Franke presents “The House of Well-Living” at Fuorisalone
With a multi-sensory installation, Franke will welcome visitors to its flagship store during Milan Design Week and present the year's new products.