Design | Matteo Brioni’s Geography of Color: ‘Volumes + Stratigraphies’

MANTUA, Italy––Matteo Brioni, founded in 2010, uses one of the most primordial materials to build its architectural works and form its design objects and surfaces: raw earth.

Featured image: Matteo Brioni, Volume – TerraVista Melograno, 2018

Returning to Milan Design Week (April 17 – 22, 2018), Brioni–-an architect engaged in continuous research for different uses of this eco-friendly material experimentation of using raw earth–– brought back the rich 14 clays color palette for the company’s Volumes & Stratigraphies collection with Milan-based design studio Studio Irvine.

[This new collection] represents 14 different types of clay developed over 14 boxes, each containing a different solid form [Volume] and 14 Stratigraphies.

Brioni’s color palette is realized in solid geometric forms and interactive bespoke moodboards which allow for exploration of color and application.

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional volumes are employed to describe Brioni’s finishes that are to be touched and moved, trying different color combinations and effects.

Studio Irvine adds the color Pepe nero, for example, owes its shades of grey to lava ash, while Cipria reflects the pinkish tones of Sardinia’s earth, and Senape the burnished hues of Sienese chalks.

Two new shades for the 2019 collection draw from the color pink with Cagliari’s Cipra surface and Cammeo from quarries in Piedmont.

Brioni says he and his company strive to bring earth’s sensation of wellness and abundance of sensory stimulation to man-made spaces citing the material’s natural “equilibrium” of strong character and extreme docility.

“I discovered, like many designers, earth, was not only a “sustainable” and “healthy” material, but also sensual and “naturally” beauty, pleasant to the touch and sinuously adaptable to any surface.” ––Matteo Brioni

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