Interpreting marble as a work of art created by nature. Enhancing its unique authenticity. Making it the protagonist of a narrative and exploring its aesthetic and formal possibilities. This is Margraf‘s approach to raw materials—original, innovative, and bold. The company has decided to recount marble—an ancient and precious material—through an unprecedented method, allowing it to dialogue with contemporary life and transcend the boundaries of design to touch upon a more artistic and contemplative world. This led to a joint project with designer Raffaello Galiotto, which began with “Frammenti” and now continues with “Planetario.”
The “Frammenti” collection recreated the remains of ancient classical architecture, inspired by architectural fragments of marble scattered and accumulated like archaeological ruins. Margraf thus gave new life to history according to an ultra-modern vision: monolithic sculptures apparently assembled with fractured parts but connected to each other by unexpected elastic bonds.
At the Marmomacc event, Margraf presented “Planetario,” an installation that further explored the connection between matter, art, and vision in an innovative way. The designer investigated the relationship between matter and the cosmos and the perception of space. This reflection gave rise to twelve large circular slabs, arranged in pairs and each made with different stones – Breccia Bohemien and Taj Mahal, Blue Agate and Travertino Silver, Giallo Siena and Botticino Classico, Polaris Gold and Travertino Pantheon, Notre Dame and Alma, Rosso Cardinale and Bianco Covelano.
Inside the space, arranged like rotating celestial bodies suspended above the floor, the slabs are transformed into stone wheels with a diameter of 2.5 meters: highly expressive engineering creations that capture the eye and invite observation of every nuance, vein, and imperfection. The invitation to contemplation is explicit: quartzites, limestones, sandstones, marbles, travertines, and onyxes are before our eyes, restoring a dynamic and constant beauty.
“As a child, I used to lose myself looking at stones up close,” says the designer, revealing the primary source of inspiration for this project. “In that microcosm of hollows, ridges, and smooth expanses, I would immerse myself in a fantastical universe, an almost infinite, expansive space that I enjoyed all to myself. I feel a similar sensation when I look at satellite images of our earth, which show rivers, mountain ranges, glaciers, and seas that, without understanding their scale, resemble the micro-textures of stone, disorienting the gaze and breaking the established relationship between us and space.”
