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A PIECE OF FURNITURE THAT UNITES ART AND DESIGN AND THAT FINDS MEANING IN ITS FORM AND SUBSTANCE.
Stradera by Impuro™ for Marmi Lanza is made of metal and Nero Assoluto, known as Nero Pretoria, a natural stone that Marmi Lanza quarries in Zimbabwe.
Principle and balance are the corner- stones of this piece with its surprising shape, able to amaze, that interacts with its surroundings in a perfect bal- ance of aesthetics and function; a ma- terial substance pushed to its limits. Nicola Zuliani, artist and blacksmith from Verona, founder of Impuro®, tells us how the Stradera console table was born, starting from Marmi Lanza s Nero Assoluto granite.
Its structure is based on a fundamen- tal relationship: the fusion of two ma- terials, metal and granite, in a material and artistic contamination between the two elements that come together in a complementary way, emphasising their distinctiveness. Like two plates of weighing scales, in balance with each other: there could never be stability without one of the two plates. And hence its name, Stradera, inspired by the ancient Etruscan weighing scales. Metal and granite have not been
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T The precious scraps of Nero Assoluto Zimbabwe granite used to make this console table were delivered into the skilful hands of the jewellery designers from Verona, Leobijoux You can admire their creations on the following pages.
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treated as single elements but as one new material made of two different parts. The main challenge was to de- sign a distinctive piece of furniture pre- cision worked mainly by hand to create something unique and sensational. Because it is when we are faced with what may seem to be almost insuper- able limits that new, unprecedented creations are born. continues Zuliani. I am a designer and craftsman black- smith, so I design and make pieces of furniture that represent an amalga- mation between two worlds, design and art. This creation represents the essence of my technical-artistic style, that is, creating furniture with a conceptual style and essential shapes but that does not mean banality or simplicity. Furniture that focusses on a well-defined aesthetic form without overlooking their function. The piece designed and made by Zuliani for Marmi Lanza is to all intents and purposes a console table, de- signed for the living area, that can also be used either as a room divider unit or as a wall. Visually, it seems to defy the laws of physics: the base acts as a counterweight for the overhang, with a pivot pin that has been immobilised. Public spaces such as luxury hotels and art galleries are its ideal location. For the installation in private homes, the load bearing capacity of the floor must be taken into consideration, and a wall-mounted version could be proposed.
It is an extremely robust structure: it can bear the weight of a person sitting at the end of the top without break- ing or tipping over, Zuliani tells us. Before making the console, structur- al calculations were made (weights, load bearing capacity, counterweight, dimensions of the marble slabs, etc.) so that the overhang was as light as possible. We have won the challenge to create a unique piece of furniture, using simple slabs of marble, without adopting complex working proce- dures. One aspect not to be overlooked is sustainability: little or no waste was generated in the production of this console table and the material, that takes centuries to form, was fully respected.