Marble matters– exploring Carrara’s legacy
Sixteen young international architects took part in two intensive training days in Carrara, organized by FUM Academy and YACademy, featuring visits to the marble quarries and a design workshop focused on the use of the material.
The New York auction curated by James Zemaitis is likely to be a success for a number of reasons. First of all for the wide range of the estimates that go from 5000 to 1.2 million dollars, but also because design objects from the twentieth century are increasingly sought after by collectors who don't care how much they spend in order to get them. Some of the estimates, for “Chair that disappears in the rain 2007 (2002)”, a chair in glass and zelkava wood by Tokujin Yoshioka from 2007, the base price is 30-50 thousand dollars, for “XXXL”, a monumental vase in coloured resin by Gaetano Pesce, 25-30 dollars, the price estimated for the “Drop” chair by Arne Jacobsen made in 1958 is 50-70 thousand dollars.
The star piece though is the Artek Pavilion designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and on show at the Triennale in Milan during last year's Furniture Fair. This prefabricated pavilion, designed as a mobile exhibition space, was commissioned by Swedish manufacturer Artek in collaboration with UPM and will be up for sale in New York with an estimated price that ranges from 800 thousand to 1.2 million dollars. The pavilion, that appeared in Domus 905/07 (Material Resurrection), is a prefabricated structure designed for reuse and mobility. It is made from just one material, a plastic-based composite that resembles wood, UPM ProFi, patented by UPM, made mainly of recycled materials. The raw material for this recycled composite is a waste material generated in the manufacturing of a product for self-adhesive stickers in paper and plastic.
Architecturally, the pavilion was conceived as a single structural unit, repeated to create an elongated exhibition space with prefabricated elements made in Finland. A single module, consisting of roof, wall and construction elements, is around two metres long and is repeated twenty times. The overall pavilion is forty metres long and five metres wide, can be easily taken down and put up again and is open at both ends to exploit natural light and make access easy from indoor spaces as well as outdoor areas. After Milan, the Artek Pavilion was shown outside the Helsinki Design Museum in the summer of 2007 and in a satellite exhibition as part of Design Miami in December 2007. Giulia Guzzini
Catalogue: Important 20th Century Design
Wood: a key resource for south tyrol
In this northern Italian region, wood is a vital resource that brings together tradition, the economy and environmental protection. The short and sustainable supply chain is worth €1.3 billion and involves thousands of local companies.