The best of the 2014 Edition of Marmomacc and Abitare il Tempo

11/12/2014

Huge success for the 2014 edition of Marmomacc and Abitare il Tempo, with 65,000 visitors from 145 countries, up by 15%.

An increasingly crossways exhibition where natural stone business created rewarding dialogue with the world of contract and interior furnishing. More than 1,500 exhibitors attended Marmomacc from 58 countries (45 of which represented by official trade delegations) –alongside more than 80 companies exhibiting at Abitare il Tempo.

The two events were animated by exhibitions, installations and cultural occasions that found their ultimate expression through Inside Marmomacc & Abitare il Tempo, a true melting pot of creativity and innovation for the stone industry and interior design and an excellent representation of craftsmanship and know-how among Italian companies.

The organisers are already working on the next edition -30 September to 3 October 2015 – and, until the new cultural program is defined, it is interesting to recall some of the projects that proved to be particularly successful this year. First of all Living Stone, the main event in Hall 1 involving four renowned Iberian architects (Manuel Aires Mateus, Josep Miàs, Eduardo Souto De Moura and Benedetta Tagliabue) who teamed up with four Italian companies to experiment old and new qualities of stone materials at the highest levels of architecture and design.

At Home also received a very warm response as the ideal meeting point between the two shows, thanks to the study into the use of marble -along and in combination with other materials- associated with furniture and finishings in projects intended for the contract world.

Staying with the subject of exhibitions, Design and Technology utterly captivated visitors by highlighting the technological excellence, processing capacity and creativity of the Italian natural stone industry; the Stone House also managed to celebrate the memory and imagination of the iconic shape houses through a set up characterised by high-impact design and the creation of original household items unusually made using stone.

Marmomacc also had the pleasure of hosting an exhibition dedicated to Renzo Piano and the construction of the New Parliament of Malta, an impressive architectural project slotted into the context of the adjacent Opera House and the new Valletta City Gate.

There were as ever many original and spectacular settings, such as the Santamargherita Arena -a forum which hosted conferences, lectures and seminars in an evocative context inspired by the architecture of the Arena, the par excellence symbol of the city of Verona- not to mention the Wine & Relax Concept Room (two different settings intended wine tasting) and Luxury & Relax (two different solutions dedicated to personal well-being).

The strong ties between Marmomacc and Italian universities are also of great significance and were demonstrated at this edition by two shows: Stereotomic Design and Stone Verticality. The first, organized in collaboration with DICAR, Bari Polytechnic University, set itself the goal of investigating the possibility of resuming research into building with dimension stone in order to provide a creative boost for contemporary architectural design. The second, on the other hand, was curated by the Department of Architecture in Ferrara and brought together a series of prototypes of architectural design prototypes developed by students, who interpreted the full potential of various stone materials in the design and construction of modular products responding to structural or decorative needs.

The Palaexpo area itself also hosted two exhibitions investigating design concepts, in the search for cultural and historical roots: Having What It Takes -coordinated by the Verona Academy of Fine Arts – focused on the decoration of fabrics as a way to understand the process of reconstruction and appreciate the intrinsic beauty of the same decorations in ancient paintings, while Beyond Decoration – Venice as a creative workshop past and present curated by ADI saw the city of Venice portrayed in a number of famous paintings that became the source of inspiration for a palette of materials and/or products intended for decoration or furnishing.

The next edition of Marmomacc and Abitare il Tempo is scheduled Wednesday 30 September to Saturday 3 October 2015.

* For further information: www.marmomacc.com / www.abitareiltempo.com