A washbasin can be a volcano

"To design, we take inspiration from observing nature, and the eruption of lava is certainly one of the most fascinating natural phenomena. With its outpouring, lava produces new life and creates a new truth in its environment. Lava flows as a red liquid when a volcano erupts, gushing out from the depths of the earth. When the lava cools, it darkens and transforms into an extremely hard black basalt stone," says Pitsou Kedem, author of the new LAVA basin, produced by Vaselli. The Israeli architect investigates natural phenomena – and in particular one of the most fascinating, the outflow of lava from a volcano – which he reinterprets through the combination of two different material blocks.

"Lava is a living substance. It changes from liquid to solid, from one shade to another. In this project, we wanted to express the meeting point of the two materials and forms of stone, and thus freeze the encounter between these two states of matter," continues Pitsou Kedem. The result is an object in which the tension between the fluid forms of lava and the limitation of the raw material, the solid stone, is echoed. It is the human hand, that of the craftsman, that redefines the boundaries between the two. The LAVA washbasin was among the projects featured in the 'Solid Pieces' exhibition, which Vaselli presented at the Milan Design Week 2023. The company focuses on solid blocks, which are the elements it has always worked on. The three collections presented interpret the possibilities of working with stone blocks in various ways, following the sensitivity of the designers involved.