marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘sultan’ ‘taksim’ and ‘gelata’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

 

 

‘marsotto edizioni’ brings together designers of various nationalities to realize products made entirely of marble. the collaboration was initiated by marsotto, producers of granite, marble, stones and composite stone fittings and designer james irvine. upon participating in the most important marble and stone fair in the world, irvine soon realized the great potential in using marble not only for flooring or masterpieces as seen in the past but applying it to the design of accessible products.

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘sultan’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

 

‘marble, in a sense a forgotten material, has been rediscovered over the past few years. some extraordinary pieces have been realized. however they have always remained rather exclusive…marble is in fact a rather normal material in Italy. why not try to do some accessible products, we asked ourselves? above all why not try to do pieces which are totally in marble? not just the top of a table, or a chunky ashtray.‘ – JI

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘sultan’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

 

‘marsotto edizioni’ soon became a venue through which designers could bring to life their ideas. with a list of contributing designers such as konstantin grcic, james irvine, jasper morrison, maddalena casadei, naoto fukasawa, thomas sandell, they have collectively created almost 30 products. the designs created in white carrara marble are made using CNC machinery and finished by hand. the marble derived from carrara is 190,000,000 years old. it is estimated that there are 60,000,000,000 cubic metres of marble in the mountains of carrara. ‘marsotto edizioni’ products were showcased during milan design week 2010.

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘sultan’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘taksim‘ by konstantin grcic

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘taksim’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘gelata’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 right to left: ‘salto 1’, ‘salto 2’, ‘squalo’ by james irvine image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘salto 2’ by james irvine image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘salto 1’ by james irvine image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘squalo’ by james irvine image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘salto’ by james irvine

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘mimmo’ by james irvine

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘ipe tondo’ and ‘ipe quadro’ by james irvine image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘ponte’ bench by james irvine image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘london, paris, rome’ by jasper morrison image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘london, paris, rome’ by jasper morrison image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘london, paris, rome’ by jasper morrison

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘marbelous’ by naoto fukasawa image © designboom marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘marbelous’ by naoto fukasawa image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 exhibition view image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘melt’ by thomas sandell image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ’tilt’ by thomas sandell image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘bella’ mirrors by maddalena casadei image © designboom

marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2010 ‘bella’ mirrors by maddalena casadei image © designboom