Twirl by Zaha Hadid for Lea Ceramica

all images courtesy zaha hadid architects and interni mutant architecture

Lea Ceramica is taking part in Interni Mutant Architecture & Design with an installation designed by Zaha Hadid. The event exhibition is organised by the magazine Interni to mark Milano Capitale del Design® 2011 (Milan Design Week 11th -17th April 2011).

The installation features Lea Slimtech, the ultraslim slab (just 3mm) available in large sizes (up to 3m x 1m): the chosen site is an 18th century courtyard, one of the most attractive areas at Milan’s University, where the slabs will be used to bring a three dimensional structure to life. It will be a sort of vortex made entirely in porcelain stoneware; a dynamic space demonstrating a flexible and unconventional use of this innovative material.

The project started out as a contemporary take on courtyard architecture. It is a dynamic composition that starts out at the perimeter of the space and then follows the orthogonal shape of the columns and lines, meeting at the centre, creating complex and sinuous geometrical patterns: The 800 m2 area is covered with 7 different colours of Slimtech slabs (from milk white to black coffee) that are 1 metre wide and in various heights ranging to a maximum of 2 metres. The installation transforms the courtyard into a space with a constantly shifting shape and colour depending on the many possible viewing angles. Fluorescent light tubes by Artemide run along the structure, lighting up the building and creating a link between the formal layout of the setting and the flowing lines of the project.

Visitors are invited to explore the sculptural effect and the formal dynamics of the various elements, the punctual relationship between solid and void, between the individual piece and the whole, part of a play on colour from black to white and the presence and absence of colour.