For those of us who love marble, the days of it being limited to just white kitchen countertops and tiles are thankfully gone. At Salone del Mobile 2024, the world’s premiere design fair, marble and other natural stone took center stage in breathtakingly creative applications. With quarries around the globe providing an incredible array of colours, patterns and textures, marble is experiencing a true renaissance.
Advancements in manufacturing machinery and fabrication methods are allowing stone to be processed and applied in seamless, artistic ways never before possible. Several kitchen exhibits were showstoppers, with marble not just gracing the countertops but wrapping the entire island base and cabinet fronts, transforming them into sculptural works of art.
The furniture pavilions showcased absolutely stunning pieces carved entirely out of single marble slabs. Organic dining tables, sculptural hallway consoles, and even marble benches with integrated planters demonstrated the plasticity of this classic material in expert hands.
Perhaps the most captivating use of marble came from the iconic Italian brand Iconci. Their display seamlessly merged a solid travertine bathtub and basins into a travertine floor as if these were formed all at once. But the true showstopper was their back-lit, carved travertine feature wall, the lighting artfully highlighting the organic textures and natural formations within the stone.
Salone del Mobile made one thing clear - in the hands of today’s talented artists and designers, humble marble and stone have been elevated from basic building materials to living, respirable canvases for architectural creativity. The ancient, elemental beauty of marble is being reborn and celebrated in the most visionary of ways.
— Alla Delion
