„Stone Design Day“ is the official title of the second day of the World Stone Congress (WSC) during Xiamen Fair. A very special topic will be presented at 2 p.m. (Saturday, March 07, 2015): „Adding Value to a Precious Material – Product Design with Natural Stone“ will be the lecture by Peter Becker of Stone-Ideas.com.
It’s about the following: A few years ago, there was a revolution in stone design: It was the shark fins made of marble by the Italian Company Marsotto Edizioni (see photo above). These little objects, which look just funny for must people, have a practical function: they are doorstoppers.
The idea was in so far a quantum leap in stone design, as the designer James Irvine (who unfortunately died in 2015) had placed the peculiarities of the material in the focus of his creation: doorstoppers need to be heavy, and stone is heavy.
An example for a meanwhile – classic – product design with marble orientated along what the material can and what it cannot is the lamp „Arco” (Bow), created by the Italian Achille Castiglioni in 1962.
Nowadays, unfortunately, in many design ideas with stone, another material is simply replaced by marble or granite. The consequence is, that the object’s usability („function”) is no more given, although its look („form”) may even be more beautiful.
Such ideas for product design disrespect the basic law „Form Follows Function” meaning that first comes the object’s usability and only in the second place is how it looks.
During the last decade, Peter Becker, publisher of Stone-Ideas.com, has been following worldwide good an bad ideas for natural stone objects.
In his lecture, he will present successful concepts for everyday objects made of stone and show how such ideas can be found and developed
By the way: Beautiful household-items made of marble or granite would make a permanent marketing for stone by simply showing their beauty every day!
All the lectures of the Stone Design Day:
Stone Design at 10 a.m. (10.00 – 12.00)
* Trends in Modern Architecture in Europe and the Future. Opportunity for Stone & Marble – Specifically with an Italian Focus. Maurizio Passaretta, Luigi Ferrario, Light Architecture, Milan.
* Art & Architecture in Stone. K. Shivashankar, Chief Architect, Eskay Design, India.
Stone Design at 2 p.m. (14.00 – 17.00)
* Adding Value to a Precious Material – Product Design with Natural Stone. Peter Becker, publisher, Stone-Ideas.com.
* Crema Marfil Coto, the Natural Stone Treasure for Your Designs. Wang Yinhui, Architect Director Makish Stone, Spain
* Era of the Onyx Decoration. Liang Jianguo, LingYun Onyx, China.
Complete program of the 2015 World Stone Congress
translation: pebe
(15.02.2015, USA: 02.15.2015)