“Tools and Space” by Ferruccio Laviani at Milano Design Week

An elegant, ultra-thin ceramic product, the utmost expression of design and innovation which, at the same time, is capable of reclaiming its primal identity, becoming pure matter as a vehicle for colour: this is what Lea Ceramiche will be showcasing during the upcoming Milano Design Week (18-23 April 2023) in an installation entitled "Tools and Space", curated by Ferruccio Laviani at the PAC - Pavilion of Contemporary Art.

Within the installation, the colours, decorations, and textures of Pigmenti showcase five elements, which represent over-sized versions of traditional and iconic architectural tools, from a giant circle template to curved lines of different shapes and sizes.

“There are objects from the not-so-distant 'analogue' era, which are still able to convey the manual skill involved in a certain design technique. ‘Tools and Space’ celebrates, in the surrealist manner of Savinio in 'Giochi Nella Foresta' [Games in the Forest], an era in which the tools of a recent past (circle templates, curved lines, or rulers) were required for design and architecture. This installation, and specifically Lea Ceramiche's Pigmenti collection, also becomes an expressive tool for generating new shapes and volumes that recall surrealist monuments in an ideal De Chirico Italian piazza, suspended between the Neoclassical architecture of Palazzo Reale and that of Ignazio Gardella's PAC," says Ferruccio Laviani.

“Tools and Space” is, therefore, the expression of a boundless design approach, which serves creativity and in which the predominant themes are those of colour and thickness. The collection used is extraordinarily thin: a second skin made up of 3.5mm thick, oversized (3x1m) ceramic slabs that can be used on vertical surfaces, both indoor and outdoor, for application on external facades or as cladding for furnished volumes. However, Pigmenti is much more than this. Produced with a thickness that is 2/3 less than that of traditional tiles, the series requires less consumption of raw materials, energy, and water, reduces pollution from transport, and is 100% carbon neutral, making it the most sustainable ceramic surface in the world.

“Lea Ceramiche's presence at Milan's PAC represents a celebration of the creative freedom and sometimes surprising potential which technological and stylistic research applied to ceramic materials is able to deliver to the sectors of architecture and design, from an increasingly sustainable perspective,” says Andrea Anghinetti, Brand Manager for Lea Ceramiche. “We have once again put our faith in the vision of Ferruccio Laviani who, in “Tools and Space” has interpreted the Pigmenti collection, which he himself designed. The result stimulates and invites an exploration of open design, in which the ceramic element can serve as a truly extraordinary ally.”