As Luminaire is much more than a furniture showroom, Salvatori is much more than a stone company, and an ongoing conversation between the two firms over the course of two years has finally come to fruition as Luminaire announces its exclusive representation of Salvatori in Florida and Illinois. “Luminaire’s approach to design is very close to our own,” said Gabriele Salvatori, “We are both entertained by the material’s romanticism.” On February 9th, Luminaire Lab’s newly expanded showroom in the Design District served as the stage for introducing the Italian company to Miami with an elaborate installation featuring 16 variations of Salvatori’s stone suspended from the ceiling. Appearing to float in mid-air, each piece was lit to reveal the exquisite variations of the material’s surfaces and colors, while nearby, four dramatically placed sinks carved from Carrara marble evoked the quiet poetry of classical sculpture.
Exclusively on view at Luminaire before its formal debut at this year’s Salone del Mobile was “Raw,” a stone finish designed to evoke the texture of wood by architect and designer Piero Lissoni. Additionally, multiple variations of Salvatori’s “Lithoverde” line, launched at Salone with John Pawson’s Stone House (2010) and incorporated into Rodolfo Dordoni’s Onsen collection (2011), revealed the company’s own, highly-innovative processes that give paramount importance to current environmental standards of production. The first man-made stone, Lithoverde is comprised of scraps of marble that are layered and vacuum-sealed before being bonded with a soy-based resin.
Consistently demonstrating its commitment to sharing design thinking with the public, Luminaire also hosted the latest edition of its continuing Lunch+Learn series with local architects and designers. Gabriele, representing the family’s third-generation Italian company, gave a detailed overview of the collection in addition to presenting many of the cutting-edge contemporary projects for which the company is known. Defined by its commitment to research and innovation with color, texture and technology, Salvatori sets itself apart by working with many top architects and designers who are also familiar names at Luminaire, making this new partnership a natural fit.
February 2012
