marsotto edizioni at milan design week 2011

‘perpignan, toulouse’ by jasper morrison image © designboom

italian company marsotto edizioni focuses on design and re-evaluating marble within this process. owned by the husband and wife team of costanza olfi and mario marsotto, the couple saw that there were no other companies on the market offering smaller marble pieces and they thought there was a niche for making limited edition furniture objects from the natural stone. with this, they also want to preserve the experience and ancient manual techniques of marble craftsmen. they have collaborated with some of the most brilliant international designers have participated in this project with enthusiasm, resulting in a timeless collection of products.

‘perpignan, toulouse’ by jasper morrison image © designboom

on the occasion of milan design week 2011, marsotto’s art director james irvine has selected ten international designers to work on new pieces for the company. they include: alberto meda, claesson koivisto rune, joel berg and ross lovegrove – who are working with marsotto edizioni for the first time – along with konstantin grcic, james irvine,  jasper morrison, maddalena casadei,  naoto fukasawa and thomas sandell.

’tiltino’ by thomas sandell image © designboom

though the company continues to work on large scale design, this year’s focus was on smaller items in order to diversify the collection. the designers have been pushed to use marble in unexpected ways, creating sculptural objects that are still functional. remaining faithful to the philosophy of making products which are made totally in marble, the pieces are produced by hand with the craftsmanship of the artisan. marsotto edizioni create their products using the unique material – white carrara marble. the marsotto pieces are not by any means eclectic. each of the designs are similar and precise in their approach. their decorative aspects are limited, the designers working only with a select number of gestures.

‘pina, dina, gina, mimma’ by james irvine image © designboom

‘pina, dina, gina, mimma’ by james irvine image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘connoisseur’ by james irvine image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘connoisseur’ by james irvine image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

detail of ‘connoisseur’ by james irvine image © designboom

‘pia’ by james irvine – the piece comes in a wooden crate image © designboom

in each of the bases of the pieces, an RFID tag is embedded to avoid counterfeiting. they are also numbered and inscribed with the designer’s name. image © designboom

an RFID tag is embedded into the base of each of the marble pieces to avoid counterfeiting of the designs. in addition, each object is numbered and inscribed with the designers name.

when one holds their phone up to the RFID tag, information comes up onto their screen displaying details of the piece at hand images © designboom

‘bebec’ by konstantin grcic image © designboom

james irvine demonstrating how ‘bebec’ is mounted onto the wall image © designboom

‘poodle’ by naoto fukasawa image © designboom

profile of ‘poodle’ image © designboom

‘poodle’ by naoto fukasawa image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘eco’, ‘plato’ and ‘neruda’ by ross lovegrove image © designboom

‘neruda’ by ross lovegrove image © designboom

installation view image © designboom

marsotto edizioni 2011 image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

marsotto edizioni 2011 image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘lello’ by maddalena casadei image © designboom

‘lello’ by maddalena casadei image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

detail of ‘lello’ by maddalena casadei image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘soya’ by claesson koivistio rune image © designboom ‘soya’ by claesson koivisto rune image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘gallery’ by claesson koivisto rune image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘gallery’ by claesson koivisto rune image courtesy of marsotto edizioni

‘jeeves’ tables by alberto meda image © designboom

installation view image © designboom

‘luma’ by joel berg image © designboom

claesson koivisto rune portrait © designboom

james irvine and alberto meda portrait © designboom

ross lovegrove portrait © designboom

joel berg (left) and thomas sandell (right) portrait © designboom