Building Objects for Danese

New entries in the Danese Milano catalogue are three pieces from the collection designed by Mario Cucinella

In 2019 Mario Cucinella, designer, founder and creative director of MC A – Mario Cucinella Architects, presented his collection of “Building Objects” design objects, created alongside master glass, marble, wood, ceramics, terracotta, brass and fabrics craftsmen.

Each object is inspired by a formal or structural element of a specific architectural project designed during his career. Unique pieces that tell a story, but at the same time offer new points of view and unexpected “combinations”, leaving each of us having a dialogue with every single design.

Today 3 pieces from the collection become part of the Danese Milano catalogue. Since its foundation, Danese has been a place of methodological and material experimentation that has combined art, craftsmanship and industry by welcoming products with a high numerical circulation into its collection as well as limited series or one-of-a-kind handmade pieces, or those created using traditional methods.

Its catalogue combines everyday objects that are the result of the meeting between design, expressive research and production, simple, high-quality products, archetypal objects where age and style are difficult to define.

The objects designed by Mario Cucinella fit perfectly into this journey, where tradition and material innovation combine with a contemporary spin to reinterpret material forms and production techniques.

The spirit of the time and the centrality of the human being are reflected in the importance that Danese assigns to the choice of artists it involves and the name of Mario Cucinella joins those of Matali Crasset, Elliot Erwitt, Marco Ferreri, Giulio Iacchetti, James Irvine, Naoto Fukasawa, Ron Gilad, Martì Guixè, Jonathan Olivares, Paolo Rizzatto, Francisco Gomez Paz, Jean Nouvel and BIG.

“I liked the idea of transforming our creative work onto buildings. Macro-objects that are places for living and conducting relationships, in micro-objects that establish other types of daily relationships with the users, other points of view, recognisable as parts of a whole”. Mario Cucinella

To be included in the Danese catalogue:

Apax, a centrepiece in polished brass, inspired by the House for Peace in Scanzano Jonico, Matera, a project donated to the City of Peace Foundation for children, established by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams in Basilicata. The Apax centrepiece comes from a single sheet folded in the origami technique to create the shape of a butterfly.

Guastalla is a 3D printed clay vase, inspired by the “La Balena” nursery school in Guastalla, Reggio Emilia. The body of the vase recalls the sinuous shapes of the school and is created by rotating and vertically translating the cross section of the building.

MCV is a centrepiece made of 3D printed clay, inspired by the shapes of the underground floor of the Museum of Etruscan Art – Luigi Rovati Foundation in Corso Venezia in Milan. The circular shape and the overlapping of the features characterising the basement of the museum are re-proposed in the sinuous features that characterise MCV.

3D clay printing is a completely innovative and experimental technology due to the difficulties involved in creating volumes with dense fluid materials: the shapes are created layer by layer through the LDM (Liquid Deposition Modelling) process.

Once solidified and fired, the clay is then subjected to an opaque black crystalline finish which gives it the final colour and protects the material, making it also suitable for contact with food.

“Modelling a material that the earth gave us millions of years ago with cutting-edge technology such as 3D printing creates a special bond between the past and the present.”

Mario Cucinella