Every year in spring Fiandre, a leading company in the production of high range porcelain stoneware slabs, calls on its longstanding partners including architects, designers, engineers, customers and retailers, to crown the months of research that have led to the design of new products at the forefront of the industry.

 

This year the occasion was particularly rich both in terms of the quality of the new products presented, and the prestigious location that hosted the event and the large attendance of guests at the workshop which brought the day to life, entitled “Passing the border between Nature and Architecture”.

 

The Tuscan hills where the International Mugello circuit is located hosted the hundreds of guests who accepted the Reggio Emilia-based company’s invitation. This imposing site became a sort of box, exploiting the natural charm of the garages, for presenting the new developments of the Maximum Extralite collection. The new Natura Maximum and DataUni Maximum materials offered an interesting view of the possibilities that a material in large dimensions - each individual 300x150 cm slab has a surface area of 4.5 m² - and with a minimum thickness of 6 or 3 mm can offer the world of architecture and design.

At the heart of the animated workshop were the important players Cesare Casati, editor of “l’Arca”, along with the architects Marco Visconti, Hervé Dessimoz and the Chairman Graziano Verdi, assisted by the Business Development Manager Gianfranco Sassi.

Moderated by the experience of Cesare Casati, the workshop allowed the two main speakers to explain their experiences to the audience who crowded into the Mugello press room. The focus of Cesare Casati’s reflections were the expression of “sustainability” which, in French, becomes “durabilité”. He invited the audience to reflect on the fact that architecture, and therefore the materials used for architecture, must be designed to last and this is the actual principle of sustainability. Creating items, materials and ideas that last over time must be the stimulus for architecture and a corporate mission for the new millennium.

The architect Dessimoz then quoted the example of his latest design, the new Refuge du Goûter, a building that is completely self-sufficient in terms of energy. The new refuge, which replaced the previous one at 3,835 m on Mont Blanc, has a load-bearing structure made of strictly local wood, Fiandre Active coatings and an external coat made of stainless steel elements, which allow the perfect integration of the building in its natural surrounding environment.

The work of Marco Visconti is also based on the same quest, hence the need for fusion between humans, nature and material is the inspiring idea of some of his works, in particular the structure of the Ferrari restaurant in Maranello and the design of the tower that is currently being built as the Zucchetti headquarters, an admirable example of sustainability and quality of working areas.

A successful exchange of ideas wonderfully summarised in the words of the Chairman and MD of Fiandre, Graziano Verdi: “All of us must make ourselves responsible in our own role so as to create a virtuous supply chain, where every step provides inspiration for the following one. This can help the spread of culture, a path that we have chosen to take this year with even more strength and conviction, starting from our participation in the Interni Legacy event, inspired by our actual desire to leave an important legacy for our future, which came to a close through the second edition of the Active Architecture prize. The participation of about a hundred qualified designs is the best confirmation of the importance to be attributed to the basic concepts of sustainability, quality and innovation”.

The awards ceremony for the winners was the climax of the evening. The architects from the studio rsa+ with Ecoswitch, joint winners along with Studio AS Architetti  for the design of the multifunctional area for children in Bazzano (L’Aquila) in the “Architects” category, and Sering Srl with the commercial/accommodation complex maTTrix (winner of the “Customer” category) underlined yet again the idea behind the design inspiration: a strong and increasingly felt desire to create designs that combine fantasy, social awareness, technological innovation and ceramic tradition.