The ECHO Showcase in the ADI Design Index for the Compasso d’Oro 2024
Freedom, system and quality.
Are the three assets that characterise this year’s edition of the ADI Design Index, the pre-selection for the awarding of the Compasso d’Oro 2024 that involves FIAM Italia as well.
high-quality design
Indeed, among the 248 design products selected stands out the Echo Showcase by FIAM Italia, designed by Marcel Wanders & Gabriele Chiave. A clear example of high quality design and innovative style.
A creative freedom, yet at the same time rational and systemic, that makes no concessions to the aesthetic and functional quality that is once again acknowledged to FIAM Italia, recently awarded as a leading company in design quality with the XXVII Compasso D’Oro Career Award to the iconic Ghost armchair designed by Cini Boeri.
The idea behind the Echo Showcase is that of creating a surface that physically extends toward the observer by multiplication.
The textured surface gives the product an extreme sense of depth, with repeated patterns of glass geometries on all sides, creating a prismatic effect that makes the showcase a precious container that amazes with surprising light refraction effects. In addition, the LED lighting system, integrated in the frontal uprights of the aluminium structure, further amplifies the light refraction effect generated by the glass: the showcase is no longer just a display unit, becoming to all intents and purposes an atmospheric lamp instead.
Moreover, the name “Echo” itself evokes a sense of repetition, amplification and reflections of light on the characteristic forms on the fused glass surface: an attempt “to echo” in space, to reduce distance, to communicate within the surrounding environment, to change, and evolve upon a simple change of the daylight.
Del resto, lo stesso nome – Echo – fa riferimento al ripetersi, all’amplificare al riverberare della luce sulla superficie geometricamente increspata del vetro fuso: un tentativo di risuonare nello spazio, di ridurre le distanze, di dialogare con l’ambiente, di non mostrarsi monotoni ed uniformi, ma capaci di cambiare, modificarsi ed evolvere, anche semplicemente al variare dell’angolazione della luce del giorno.
Experimentation is essential for Marcel Wanders studio
Fiam Italia’s innovative glassmaking processes definitely allow to design luxurious products which can create a strong sense of illusion through original shapes.
The successful collaboration between FIAM Italia and Marcel Wanders studio has led, over the years, to the design of numerous products that have quickly become landmark icons of international design. Among them: the Pop mirror, with the distinctive bubble texture of its frame that lightens and plays with light; the ironically irreverent Lollipop mirror; the Echo sideboard that echoes the stylistic and geometric features of the showcase, as well as the recent low-showcase that has expanded the range. Last but not least is the Cristaline table, a new addition to the 2022 catalogue, which features a new geometric pattern stylizing floral forms on the theme. Like in every “tradition” there is a component that retreives and another one that innovates, that “hands down” while “betraying”: Cristaline blends together the table and its decoration.
All the creations resulting from the synergy of FIAM Italia with Marcel Wanders studio are intrinsically devoted to communication and relationship with each other, with the environment and people.
