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Palea / LITHICA

Shelf, 2025

Client: Lapilli

Team:

  • Francesco Vedani

  • Matteo Mina

  • Diego Spartà​

MILANO DESIGN WEEK 2025

SUPERSTUDIO PIÙ

Via Tortona 27 – Milano
7-12 april, 11:00 - 21:00

13 april, 11:00 - 18:00
6 april, 15:00 - 20:00  (VIP & Press Preview)

“Palea”  is  a  modular  shelf  that  reinterprets  the  principle  of  natural  stratification  in  a  design  key.  The  name,  inspired  by  the  Latin  term  for  a  layer  or  deposit,  evokes  the  sedimentation  of  lava  over  time,  but  also  the  memory  that  is  imprinted  in  the  material. Lava  stone  and  steel  alternate  in  horizontal  volumes,  creating  a  modular  structure  that  adapts  to  the  space  and  sculpts  it.  The  design  is  dry,  essential,  with  a  tension  between  visual  lightness  and  geological  strength  that  defines  the  identity  of  the  object.  Palea  is  at  the  same  time  surface  and  sign,  function  and  story.  An  element  that,  more  than  furnishing,  structures  the  environment  with  the  precision  of  an  architectural  gesture.

LITHICA is a collection born from the encounter between the geological memory of the Earth and the material culture ofcontemporary man. Lava stone and steel confront each other in a dialogue between opposing forces: on one side the naturalheat that forges the rock, on the other the artificial heat of the industrial furnace that shapes the metal. The identity of the projectlies in this tension: an aesthetic that is not decoration, but an expression of matter and function.Each piece of the collection is based on the principles of Max Bill's Gute Forme: pure, functional forms, in which beauty and utilitycoincide.  At the same time, it recognizes itself in the Super Normal philosophy of Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa, whichinvites us to design discrete, profound, necessary objects. It is not the formal gesture that imposes itself, but the quality ofpresence, the ability to tell stories through matter. LITHICA is a tribute to myth and modernity. It evokes volcanoes and divinities, magma and landscapes, but it also speaksof industrial revolution, conscious production, design as an ethical gesture. It is a sober but monumental collection, whichrejects pomp to enhance the authentic strength of materials. Each element is a small domestic architecture, a point ofbalance between the Earth and technique, between an archaic past and a possible future. LITHICA is a landscape to inhabit, amaterial story to share.

© 2025 by Filippo Mambretti Design Studio

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