(Verona, Italy – October 29, 2007) – The importance of Marmomacc to the world of stone was demonstrated by this year’s “Marmomacc Meets Design” initiative, which paired leading international designers with 10 Italian stone processors. The pairings focused on the “lightness” of stone in developing objects, such as lamps, and entire booth designs. Three of the booths featuring these designs shared the first Marmomacc Best Communicator Award, presented to the booths with the best visual approaches to conveying the richness of stone. The winners: -Il Casone for Kengo Kuma’s booth design; -Grassi Pietre for its booth, designed by Aldo Cibic; and -PibaMarmi for Michele de Lucchi’s marble lamps over miniature stone structures. Kuma, Cibic, Denis Santachiara, Tobia Scarpa, and Riccardo Blumer are among the designers involved with this project who were also present at Marmomacc. They were joined by a number of architects who received awards for the 10th Edition of The International Architecture In Stone Award (please see our press release of June 4, 2007, or email us for a copy), including Jensen & Skodvin, Paulo David, Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas and Beniamino Servino, at a ceremony held at Verona’s unique Castelvecchio Musem. This event was also attended by architects – including Angela Garcia de Paredes and Ignacio Garcia Pedrosa, as well as Ignacio Fernandez Solla -- whose works were featured in the New Stone Architecture In Spain exhibition, which highlighted major stone projects of the last 10 years. Marmomacc attracts architects not only thanks to its commitment to promoting stone-related design, but also because it is the best place to learn about the technological innovations shaping the manipulation of stone. An outstanding example of this to come out of Marmomacc 2007 is the Grein group’s “Stone Foil,” a stone material so malleable – it has a thickness of just 2/10 of a millimeter – that it is ideal for non-flat surfaces. Grein created a series of motorcycle helmets with an outer layer in granite as an example of what becomes possible thanks to this increased flexibility (the helmet is available in 15 types of granite): Marmomacc 2007 also hosted the ninth edition of its continuing education course for architects. Thirty architects from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., India, South Africa and Australia spent four days studying the importance of stone in modern design. Participants visited quarries in Lessinia, Palladio’s Villa “La Torre” and even Bertani’s 18th century Villa Novare winery. Nearly half of the more than 65,000 stone-sector professionals who attended Marmomacc were foreign visitors, representing 110 countries. This 6 % increase in foreign visitors to more than 26,000 demonstrates Marmomacc’s global importance and why the show has become the annual meeting point for the stone sector. Over 1,500 companies from 50 countries exhibited stone materials and technologies, making Marmomacc the ideal venue to see the best that the world of stone has to offer. The tentative dates for Marmomacc 2008 are October 2nd-5th. For more information on Marmomacc or digital copies of the images, please contact: The Consultants International Group in Washington, DC (Sebastiano Brancoli, sbrancoli@cig-dc.com, tel.: 202-783-7000).
