#HTE

Finding A Contemporary Aesthetic Within an Ancient Process

Looking at Patricia Urquiola’s stunning Shimmer collection, launched for Glas Italia during Milan Design Week last year, one would never guess that it was the designer’s first foray into using glass. It is a material she had been avoiding for a simple yet unexpected reason: she hated it. “If you’re working in tableware or little items, it can be very interesting,” she stated, “I hate glass when you have to do furniture. It makes me vomit.”

It seems like that collection was a turning point for the Spanish designer, because this year she’s at it again. At Spazio Pontaccio, Urquiola will launch a line of furniture she has been collaborating on with Federico Pepe, the design polymath and creative director behind Le Dictateur. 

The Credenza collection—which will include a series of cupboards (pictured below), screens and low tables—draws its name from the Italian word that means both “cupboard” and “belief.” Similarly, the designers are seeking to fuse functionality with the ethereal beauty of stained glass. 

As a process, stained glass hasn’t changed much since it was first developed in the middle ages. Despite Credenza’s contemporary geometric patterns and colors, its production process is steeped in the historic tradition of the stained glass technique. In the images below, we see Italian artisans deftly crafting each piece by hand. The process begins with cutting individual forms out of sheets of glass and laying them out in intricate patterns.

The glass pieces are then joined with lead, an ideal material for this because it is both flexible and very strong/durable. 

The actual term “stained glass” derives from a “stain” of silver chloride that is painted onto the back of the glass, which is afterwards fired in a furnace. This silver stain is used to give a wider range of colors, from pale yellow to a deep red, depending on the glass composition, stain composition, the number of applications, the temperature of the furnace, and the color of the initial piece of glass. It also imparts an even quality so that light can shine through the glass uniformly.  

Credenza will debut at the Spazzio Pontaccio Showroom in Milan, Italy on April 11, 2016. 

More from Core77’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2016!

http://www.core77.com/posts/51690/Finding-A-Contemporary-Aesthetic-Within-an-Ancient-Process