Here is the official one-minute video summarising the crucial moments of our
event “From earth to the Earth” which took place at the Fuorisalone 2009:
the concept, Refin and DesignTaleStudio ceramic tiles, Michele De Lucchi and
his temporary architecture made of ceramic, the guests and visitors, the
Triennale exhibition. What do you think?

On Refin’s website, we have just published a celebrative page for the event with a complete photo- gallery and videos (which you will also find on our DesignTaleStudio Youtube channel).

In this second video, taken at the “Sustainable project” meeting we organised during the recent Fuorisalone, Paolo Tamborrini (Professor at the University Politecnico in Turin and author of the book “Design Sostenibile, oggetti, sistemi e comportamenti”), Mario Zoccatelli (president of Green Building Council Italy) and Davide Carra (in charge of Environmental and Quality systems for Gruppo Concorde) comment on the building industry in Italy: planners, manufacturers, builders.

During the recent event, “From earth to the Earth”, an interesting meeting called “Sustainable project” took place, a meeting that was focused on the themes of bio-building, sustainable design and made in Italy products. We will dedicate some posts to reviewing some of the most crucial moments of this meeting: in this first excerpt, Davide Carra, head of and Quality systems at Gruppo Concorde (which Refin, DesignTaleStudio’s parent company, is part of) talks about the problems that a ceramic tile company could face when adopting this kind of “sustainable” approach.

We have published some photos of our set design for “From earth to the Earth” – held during the Fuorisalone trade-fair at the Triennale in Milan on Flickr. Here are just a couple of the photos: an exterior shot and a detailed shot of the area dedicated to DesignTaleStudio ceramics, exclusively created by Michele De Lucchi with one of his renowned “imaginary architectures”, which was also made from ceramic.

The Fourisalone has closed and we will now start publishing some videos filmed during our event “From earth to the Earth” at the Triennale in Milan.

This is the recording of the introductory speech by architect Michele De Lucchi, the creator of our design set, during the press preview on Tuesday, April 21. Just a few words but extremely striking and sometimes even surprising, in fact, we all already knew about his love for wood, which he manifested in his work “casette a forma di casa“ (little houses in the shape of houses) but his recent rediscovery of ceramic and natural a href=”http://www.architetturadipietra.it/wp/?p=2436″>stones in general allows us to witness important creative opportunities.

Today the Fuorisalone has officially opened in Milan, and within the area “From earth to the Earth” created by Refin Ceramics and DesignTaleStudio in the courtyard opposite the Triennale, an event of great interest for all architects and designers interested in eco-sustainability will take place. It’s a cocktail evening, called “Sustainable Project”, which sees the attendance of Marco Zoccatelli (president of the Green Building Council Italy), Paolo Tamborrini (professor at the Politecnico in Turin) and Davide Carra (in charge of Quality Systems at the Gruppo Concorde). The focus of the event will be the role of companies, designers and certifying bodies in bio-architecture and sustainable design. The event will start at 19:00 CET, and registration is required.

Meanwhile yesterday morning a press preview reserved for journalists took place, with the participation of Michele De Lucchi, the designer of the “From earth to the Earth” area. Representatives from many important newspapers were present and interviewed the managers of Refin and De Lucchi for almost two hours, with De Lucchi giving a brief, but very interesting speech illustrating the conceptual assumption behind his design and its connection with ceramics. We will soon upload a video of the interview. For now, here are a few photos of the morning.

Here is the text Michele De Lucchi wrote for the “Dalla terra alla Terra” (“From earth to the Earth”) installation, that will be held at the Milan Triennale during Fuorisalone 2009.

Ceramic is a marvellous material, not only as it is functional, cosy, solid, long-lasting, resistant, natural and eco-friendly, but also because it is earth. The earth is all we have and it is, both physically and metaphorically, our most precious material. Ceramic can create surfaces featuring any colour or finish and it allows for countless combinations of decors, natural imitations and creative geometries.

Too often though, we associate ceramic tiles exclusively with wall and floor coverings and too often we forget the majesty of this material, using it only to keep, unaltered over time, the welcoming feeling of a tile covered wall or flooring. But, a ceramic tile is earth, therefore it is an excellent building material, the best, the most versatile building material of all and thanks to this evocative quality, our tall and slender buildings came to life, as do our thoughts which fly high in the sky.

Thus, this rigid ceramic tile becomes a new material, rich in suggestions and hints, which take us by the hand into a new era, where ceramic cladding is not simply a mere covering skin but a marvellous material which, sprung from earth, brings all of us, contemporary man, back to the Earth.

Exactly a week to go before the opening of the Fuorisalone exhibition, or more specifically, before the press preview where we will reveal the set design for “From earth to the Earth”, in the courtyard opposite the Triennale, created by Michele de Lucchi exclusively for Ceramiche Refin. During this preview, scheduled to start at 10.30, architect de Lucchi in person will explain his work and the key-concept driving his creativity, that is to say, the intimate and enduring tie between nature and ceramics.

During the Fourisalone exhibition there will be plenty of time set aside on this theme within our set design. On Refin’s web-site, you can see the landing page showing the detailed schedule of events and the registration form, while, in the next day or two our blog will provide further details and teasers of the event.

The new Tagli d’Autore DesignTaleStudio Gold and Platinum are now available: a touch of prestige added to an already existing collection of 30×120 ceramic inserts, conceived as a design element for walls. These two new collections use the same precious material which have already been used in the Pareti d’Autore collection, and together with it, they represent our DTS point of view on luxury aesthetics in design, a theme we have gone into in great depth many times. And you, what are your thoughts?