The new challenge for Lithos Design is getting design to cater to the needs of architecture. On the occasion of Marmomacc, Lithos Design is presenting a genuine architectural project at the cutting edge, offering a charming composition of modular stone elements (hewn stones) which are produced in series and can be arranged together in a variety of solutions to build walls, corners, openings and architraves.
The planning and production of the hewn stone encapsulate all the major features of design: originality, styling, functionality and industrialisation. The sinuous plied shape of the stone is suited to all architectural requirements and makes a multitude of constructions possible: designers can create their building according to their own creativity. A complex and challenging project where the company and the designer went through a lengthy process of studying the cutting possibilities, checking the technical requirements and testing the technological limits to make sure that marble could be split, that the modular and specular surfaces would match and could be put back together to allow the material to be recomposed in an architectural shape. Materia Litica also shows how stone, a material which is considered to be difficult to change and consequently of limited flexibility for current architectural requirements, in actual fact has a mutable spirit which can be expressed in full through a clever design planning. The installation spans 90 sq.m. and shows the construction of a “sample” building which can be achieved through the serial use of these hewn stones. The resulting mood is marked by a strong sense of naturalness and matter, guaranteed thanks to the use of a material such as Travertine, a porous, stratified and solid marble, which is especially suited to external use as well. The project is also a challenge to the sustainability of marble: the shape is designed to afford minimum production waste and, thanks to their solidity, these hewn stones are also produced to be dismantled, re-used and re-built like those used in ancient buildings. Materia Litica is an all-Italian design initiative, from the concept to the planning of each production phase. Italians are also behind the study and implementation of the cutting-edge technologies which were indispensable to the success of the project, providing an additional guarantee of the original creativity and quality. Travertine is Italian: a staple stone in ancient constructions, used for the Colosseum and Ancient Rome.