THE TACTILITY OF MATTEO BRIONI’S RAW EARTH
During Milan Design Week Matteo Brioni’s raw earth takes center stage.
Clay, water and natural aggregates. This is the recipe for Matteo Brioni’s raw earth, which embellishes numerous installations in the city of Milan during Milan Design Week 2017. A family tradition of brick making that goes back almost a century and a personal passion for form and building have inspired the young architect Matteo Brioni to experiment and take risks with a material that has always been one of architecture’s basic elements.
The result is that, in 2010, the Matteo Brioni company was formed by a team with expertise in laying and experimenting with the raw earth. Led by Matteo himself, this team continues to search for new applications of what is a remarkably traditional material in architecture and interior design. Ideal for continuous surfaces, both horizontal and vertical, the earth sinuously conforms to any shape, molding to its support and creating tactile experiences that render the environments in which it is used unique.
"The insight came in 2004 when I saw an unfired brick at a trade fair and I thought it might be an interesting product to diversify the production of the family business a bit," says Matteo Brioni. "I went on the internet, I documented and contacted the individual universities and professionals in Italy who had begun to deal with this topic and began collaborating with them. After the bricks came the plasters and then the finishes. A little bit at a time interest in the ‘raw system’ grew, along with contacts and research. By 2009 this product was already taking up all of my work time and so in 2010 I decided to create my own company out of what had been the family business for four generations. Now I wake up every day full of ideas and new projects. I love challenges and I never say no, even to the most unusual requests that come from designers and architects, because they contribute to raising the bar of our skills and abilities."
Under the knowledgeable art direction of architect Marialaura Rossiello of Studio Irvine, who guides Matteo Brioni's expertise, the brand has become the benchmark for raw earth. "The first time I saw Matteo Brioni’s earth in Gonzaga I found myself literally with my heels in the mud, and I quickly realized that I had to take off those heels for the years I’d be doing artistic direction for Matteo Brioni," declares Marialaura. "The goal was to transfer the generational history of Matteo Brioni and his passion into an established and well-known name. Matteo is the producer, supplier, the one who selects, and the one who applies, in a word: the architect of raw earth. He consults, creates work teams, applies and baptizes new products and tailors them to each new project. Matteo is also synonymous with ecology, passion, and heart that speak through an ethical material, capable of adapting to any shape and aesthetic desire. The material that enters into a relationship with the person. In the future? We'll be working on three dimensional products and modularity, to open new markets and stimulate the world of interior design.”
For Milan Design Week 2017, Matteo Brioni presents TerraWabi, the new interior finishing system, a product that combines the smoothness and depth of slaked lime, with wax and oils to achieve the sophistication of soft, warm earth tones. Inspired by the Japanese aesthetic concept of Wabi-sabi, which enhances the beauty of an object in its most essential and natural state, with this project Matteo Brioni rediscovers the elegance of an intuitive and spontaneous creation, based on an originality and that seeks to depart from traditional canons of absolute perfection.
The versatility of TerraWabi and all of Matteo Brioni’s other creations such as TerraEvoca, TerraPlus, MultiTerra and Chiaro d’Argilla, which blend with the environment around them, has led to the development of many different installations at several points around the city including: Agape12 (via Statuto 12) and Albed (Via San Damiano 5) in true shop-in-shop contexts, inside the Paola C showroom (via Solferino 11) with the permanent installation curated by Elisa Ossino. At the Salone, Matteo Brioni’s raw earth is used for the stand of Baleri Italia (Hall 16 – Stand D51).
There are also many projects that apply raw earth for alternative uses: TerraStool, prototype stools made with spray and trowel technique that enhance the dimensionality, lightness and typical colors of the product, designed by Studio Irvine, will be on display at Vintage55 (via Ponte Vetero 1) while at the Fabbrica del Vapore (via G.C. Procaccini 4) a preview of 2018 will be presented: TerraCanvas, a new and evocative application of raw earth in the textile world designed by the architect-artist Isabella Breda.
A completely natural, recyclable, and versatile material that becomes the protagonist and simultaneously makes an appearance in personalized settings enhanced by a tactility that takes you back in time.
