The choice of a name is no coincidence, in the case of this collection by Marazzi with its vivid ingredients of research and technological innovation. Crogiolo (Crucible) is in fact the name of the industrial building where the company was born in the 1930s, at Sassuolo, and it is the place where a laboratory for research and experimentation was created in the 1980s – Il Crogiolo. A free creative workshop where architects, designers, artists and photographers collaborate with enthusiasm to interpret ceramic products, giving rise to an intense period of pure research, in the experimentation of Marazzi.
The parade of inventions includes signature tiles by the likes of Roger Capron, Amleto Dalla Costa, Original Designers, Saruka Nagasawa, Robert Gligorov, with photographs by Luigi Ghirri, Cuchi White and Charles Traub. To document the history of the brand and of 112 projects, the ‘Il Crogiolo’ notebooks examine new decorative techniques and applications, with illustrations, original sketches, photographs, comment by designers and ceramists, still representing a source of inspiration in the company’s research.
The new Crogiolo Rice collection is steeped in this past and in a present made of industrial workmanship, a perfect combination between love for things made by hand and authentic ceramics, alongside the constant activity of research and innovation that has set Marazzi apart for over 80 years. Precisely through in-depth study of glazes and colors, sustained by avant-garde production technology, Crogiolo Rice reinterprets the beauty of handmade majolica in stoneware, with its dense, shiny glaze full of imperfections, haloes, dots, variations of hue and graphics, to make every piece, every wall composition practically unique.
There are three modular formats – 15×15, 5×15 and 7.5×20 cm – with straight edges for installation, while a neutral palette – white, natural and gray, with accents of blue – intertwines three motifs inspired by nature, giving rise to multiple compositions of inimitable character. The result is a constantly vibrant, enveloping and welcoming space, over and above changing styles and the passage of time.
