KAZA Concrete presented a monumental installation at Ventura Future during Milan Design Week that offered a first look at Flutes and Reeds by GRT Architects, a new tile design set to be launched in full during this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week.
The installation took the form of a giant column and was set in the basement of FuturDome, reminiscent of an archaeological finding. The column represented an intersection of classical and contemporary, its intricate surface showcasing a section of Flutes and Reeds by GRT Architects.
GRT Architects: “Fluting and reeding are among architecture’s oldest surface embellishments. The Greeks and most that followed treated these motifs as linear elements applied to columns, pilasters, and walls. GRT Architects had the opportunity to rethink this relationship when designing a family of cast concrete tiles for KAZA Concrete. We proposed a triangular tile to afford design possibilities by ‘clocking’ tiles in one hundred twenty degree increments and for the different grid arrangements they produce. Each triangle is, in effect, a slice of a ‘normal’ fluted or reeded column. When arranged in a well-behaved fashion they form a surface that would look familiar to the Greeks, overlaid with a subtle, triangular matrix. However, some unique patterns emerge when tiles are rotated. We are excited by the balance of visual complexity and familiarity and by the knowledge that there are undoubtedly combinations we have yet to discover.”
Visitors also had the opportunity to peek into the column and concrete as a material through a triangular window that revealed a small terrazzo-universe within the column.
Held in three venues, the inaugural Ventura Future exhibition focused on future concepts, innovative techniques, new materials and progressive visual language. The show presented the very best of contemporary ideas, experimental projects and products to an international audience during Milan Design Week.
