Casalgrande ceramic cloud

To celebrate 50 years of its history, Casalgrande Padana has organised a number of very interesting events and cultural initiatives.

The first event is the “Casalgrande Ceramic Cloud”, a combination of architecture and land art, designed by Kengo Kuma and made by Casalgrande Padana, under an agreement with the Municipality of Casalgrande. The work, the first one to be made by the great Japanese architect in Italy, is well under way and will be finished before next summer.

The second event “Casalgrande Ceramic Cloud” will also be the focus of another, important cultural event during Design Week, from 13th to 19th April, at Milan’s Università Statale, where Casalgrande Padana will take part in the Interni Think Tank with an evocative installation by Kengo Kuma inspired by the work that is under construction.

The work is an unusual three-dimensional construction that experiments with innovative applications of the latest-generation ceramic units. Entirely made of special, large glazed stoneware tiles mechanically anchored to a specially-designed metal frame, the construction is over 40 metres large and 7 metres high and looks like an architectural object of refined elegance intended to symbolically mark a traditional productive region which is deeply bonded to the culture of design.

Set in a communal green area of over 2,8000 square metres, the installation is located on the new Strada Pedemontana next to the company’s production site, with such spectacular landmark acting as the Eastern Gate to the regional ceramic district.

Also during the event organised by the magazine Interni, on Wednesday 14th the great Japanese architect will give a conference in the Assembly Hall of Milan’s Università Statale and will attend the awards ceremony for the Grand Prix 2007-2009, the eighth international architecture award promoted by Casalgrande Padana.

On the occasion, the company will launch the ninth award, which was created by the glazed stoneware leader in 1990 for the best works made with their products all over the world.

Kengo Kuma