Sun-dried mud bricks form the built environment from about 7,000 to 9,000 BC. Their descendants – decorative and structural tiles – arrived later, but remained just as fundamental: humble units capable of producing walls, floors, facades and entire architectural languages. Millennia later, builders, craftsmen and designers are still finding new dimensions to push them.
“Our starting point was the hemisphere as a unit of thought, a form so reduced that it becomes almost invisible, but repeated on a surface, it creates a whole landscape, balancing positive and negative space, fullness and emptiness,” says Cristiano Pigazzini, Design Manager and Founding Partner at Note Design Studiodescribing the new Hemispheres concept developed for the timeless Italian tile producer Rebellion. “Neither can exist without the other.”
It debuted this month 3daysofdesignthe boldly geometric, colorful building block product translates the manufacturer’s unabashed range of graphics from two to three dimensions, opening up a whole new paradigm of function and application.
Although founded two decades ago, Mutina has continuously strived to advance the expressive capabilities of its core product and its proprietary expertise. With this fresh, cleverly redesigned—essentially extruded—design, it’s taken a big leap into new territory. What is usually a finishing solution covering skeletal walls and floors has now become a structural component in its own right. And yet, in no case has it lost its aesthetic quality.
Not just a cube, the exquisitely glazed terracotta brick features evenly cut semicircular recesses on both sides. This detail makes all the difference. When stacked together in a repeating pattern or assembled as a makeshift partition wall, this typical quality allows for fascinating permeability interactions. Light and air can still flow freely. As the base of a table or as the armature of a modular shelving system, this characteristic geometry adapts. It is an invitation to add other items. The configuration possibilities are as endless as its range of applications. The product is suitable for both internal use and external application.
The repetitive, perfectly ordered grid that Emisferi can become is satisfyingly determined, never overly idiosyncratic. On closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that the not-quite-crystalline glaze is, in fact, imperfect. Subtle evidence of the human hand – both matte and velvety – imbues the otherwise monolithic block with unexpected depth. Plays of light and shadow emerge. Available in Beige, Light Blue and Brown, Emisferi also invites experimentation with a variety of patterns.
To learn more about the partners behind the design and production, visit notedesignstudio.se and mutina.itrespectively.
Photo by Peter Winter.
