Milan Showroom

Project

The gray quartz of Materia clads a showroom with style

It is in Milan that the latest trends in fashion, communications, design and architecture appear and thrive. Innovation and personality take the stage, on the streets, in offices, and in contemporary society interiors. And it was in Milan that Stone Italiana created this showroom, sited a short walk from the Cathedral, using the Materia collection.

All the surfaces and details in this display and office space were radically reduced, leaving just the raw material which becomes the undisputed highlight of this elemental interior, in which the only features characterizing individual elements and setting them apart are their color and their surface finish.

Tables, work surfaces, bar corners and wall-mounted furniture units are made in quartz slabs to the architects’ designs.

All the architectural elements were created by exploiting the flexibility of use that is a feature of Stone Italiana’s quartz slabs.

The products were chosen from the Materia collection, used for horizontal surfaces, flooring and suspended ceiling. This non-color collection gives the architect extensive opportunities for creativity, and it represents a response to the visual expression typical of modern design, giving stone new emotive and conceptual significance.

Materia, in the Grigio Milano shade, enhances the textural aspect of interior flooring,by means of the wide range of surface finishes used: Grain 2.0, Rocface 2.0 and Rocplan 2.0 are utilised for quartz flooring and wall-cladding, chosen for the large open-space interiors, with a spontaneous total-look effect and distinctive for their varying degrees of surface light reflections.

Stone Italiana’s technological innovation can be seen in the remarkably high quality of the material, and also in the possibility of manufacturing quartz slabs with lengths of up to 3 metres, for floors and suspended ceilings. For the latter, a bespoke suspension system was designed by Turin Polytechnical University.

In the space below the staircase, an additional design detail hallmarks the quartz flooring slabs engineered by Stone Italiana with a bespoke solution, creating a pattern of small transparent glass cylinders used for floor-level lighting, producing a pattern of light that recalls a starry sky. Slabs with the same pattern were also used for wall-cladding on the ground floor, forming an unusual sunshade structure.

“Ductility” is the keyword of this design: the quartz slabs are also used as ceiling panels, a good example of the expressive and design opportunities offered by the Materia collection. A large staircase with quartz steps in the color Verde Silver was installed to provide access to the lower floor. This color creates a contrast with the pure neutral grey of the storage space, which is designed in elemental geometric forms. The staircase becomes an interior design element in itself: its striking green color, its position behind the windows and the architectural forms with wall-mounted handrail help make it a highly distinctive feature.

Specifications

Project features

Technology

Quartz

Destination of use

Showroom

City

Milan

State

Italy

Year

2009

Client

Private

Design Studio

Architect Ezio Riva and Arturo Montanelli's Studio Ardea

Contract details

Flooring, Wall cladding, stairs

Projects

Products used

Gallery

Other projects of interest

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