Left, visitors are
guided through
an immersive
experience that
consists of a large
circular kitchen
island, made of
Caesarstone White
Attica, and 250
Caesarstone and
metal mesh pedestalsRight, a sketch
book used by
Snarkitecture to
explore a number
of options for
its immersive
experienceALTERED STATES
by Snarkitecture for CaesarstoneLEFT, IMAGES AND MATERIALS,
SUCH AS CAESARSTONE
QUARTZ SLABS AND METAL
MESH, IN SNARKITECTURE’S
STUDIO ALLOW FOR DETAILED
TOPIGRAPHICAL AND
ELEMENTAL EXPLORATIONS‘We also just wanted to build something
that would involve a giant ball of ice’
inventive material explorations centring on the brand’s
signature engineered-stone slabs.
Asked to interpret the kitchen space for this year’s
edition – which coincides with the biennial
EuroCucina show at Salone del Mobile – Snarkitecture
explores the notion of a kitchen island as a social hub
and a context within which to explore the changing
states of water, the most elemental ‘ingredient’ used
in cooking. In an early preview, titled Altered States
and shared in January at the International Design Show
(IDS) in Toronto, the designers presented a series of
sculptural vignettes that formally reference glaciers,
geysers and waterfalls: a range of ‘structures that
connect altered states of water to the natural world’,
says Mustonen. Each topographic study sugests
a scale of geologic time in miniature, evoking natural
rock formations and contours that have been eroded
and sculpted by the passage of water in various
states – ice, liquid, steam – and which are equally
put to use in cooking techniques.
‘I knew Caesarstone, as I think most people do,
as a kitchen countertop material, and we were
interested in thinking of using it in ways that it wasn’t
meant to be used,’ says Mustonen. ‘In this case, there
was an opportunity for us to take this material that
people understand in a very speciic, narrow context,
and open it up a little bit to create a somewhat abstract,
experiential environment.’ Arsham adds, half-jokingly,
‘We also just wanted to build something that would
involve a giant ball of ice.’
In Milan, these topographical and elemental
explorations – made with layers of Caesarstone’s
engineered-quartz slabs, precision-cut into sinuouscontours and stacked in a terraced mass in a display
of the material’s solidity – will combine to form
a single ‘island’ with various stations showcasing ice,
water and steam. Ofering a physical metaphor of
the kitchen island as an island landscape, it will form
the centrepiece of an amphitheatre-style setting,
which will be surrounded by more than 250 pedestals,
made using three diferent Caesarstone colours from
its new industrial collection Metropolitan: ‘Cloudburst
Concrete’, ‘Airy Concrete’ and ‘Ruged Concrete’.
The monochromatic pedestals gradually rise to emulate
the appearance of a natural landscape.
The installation itself will take place at the long-
shuttered Palazzo dell’Uicio Elettorale di Porta
Romana, a former university building that will open
to the public for the irst time in 20 years, for the
duration of Salone. ‘It’s sort of a secret space in the city,
a building that you might walk by all the time without
noticing what’s inside it,’ says Porto. Altered States
will give visitors a rare opportunity to take in the aged
grandeur of the storied, timeworn space before it’s
closed down and redesigned by Piero Lissoni for the
forthcoming Milan Edition Hotel.
‘Whether it’s in the context of IDS in Toronto,
or Salone, we’re interested in creating an experience
for people who are seeing dozens of installations or
hundreds of objects a day,’ says Mustonen. ‘We wanted
to create something that will ideally stand a little bit
apart from that setting – something a bit meditative
and relective on the one hand, but also sort of strange
and theatrical on the other.’ ∂
Altered States, 17-21 April, Palazzo dell’Ucio Elettorale di
Porta Romana, Corso di Porta Romana 10, Milan170 ∑