OIKOS colour and matter for sustainable architecture has always been at the forefront of experimentation and innovation

Oikos has based its research on recovery and re-use building materials that combine sustainabilty and design.

Oikos = Recovery, re-use of matter for sustainable architecture

At the Salone 2015, OIKOS again reaffirmed its strong presence in the national and international architectural scene, becoming a key organisation in the construction and development industries, creating with their colors a role in the area of architecturally sustainable textured paint finishes

A production achieved through vertical, horizontal surfaces, high-quality three-dimensional perception and sensory capabilities : a path between heterogeneous materials where colors, light, sound, touch, smells intersect in a unique atmosphere that makes part of the visitor in an exciting journey.

The fusion of matter and colour, between substance and design: an unpublished and original mix that gave birth to 33 new colors.

OIKOS, whose etymology is derived from the Greek word Oikos ( = home environment where you live ), welcomed visitors of Design Week to a number of installations and exhibitions around Milan

Each one proposing solutions to transform surfaces and environments of innovation, sustainability and beauty

Beyond Colour @ Paola Lenti

The collaboration between Oikos and Paola Lenti continued in 2015

The ongoing collaboration between Oikos and Paola Lenti comes from their shared idea of colour as an element of design

Paola Lenti again presented her collections for interiors and exteriors at the Chiostri dell’Umanitaria (cloisters), with an exhibition event called BEYOND COLOUR.

Oikos created materials site specific for Paola’s product offerings, with coordinated colour creations made to measure.

The research and development team of Oikos studied with scrupulous attention, chromatic landscapes and textures to measure, offering the designer the research in innovation and sustainability.

Textures and shades elaborated and developed specifically after a careful analysis of the weaves and fabrics in order to focus attention on the subtle, balanced and essential yet never banal elegance of her ranges of products.

Interview ( in Italian)  with Vicky Syriopoulou ( color designer for Oikos ) – explaining the colour concept of Beyond Colour by Paola Lenti & Oikos

Daniel Libeskind & Oikos

For the entire week of the Salone and beyond to Expo Milan ( end May 24th 2015 ) the ancient cloister of the Pharmacy Faculty at University Statale, Milan – a featured presentation of the exhibition organized by Interni, Energy for Creativity – will be occupied by an extraordinary site-specific installation designed by the famous Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind.

His work entitled “Future flowers” is a great combination of multiplicity of disciplines such as design, architecture, art and aesthetics.

The composition is dedicated to the pleasure of light, of colour and to the magic of straight lines- using 2km of aluminium panels.

Taken from the Chamberworks series of drawings, the installation will develop this concept three-dimensionally, structured on folded and cut metal panels, soaked with an extraordinary addition of densities and colours, which are part of the new colour collection developed by Libeskind for Oikos.

During the press preview conference, Libeskind claimed ……

” That color is an essential, inalienable part of people’s lives and a key aspect of sustainable design, as it is the basis of our sensational sphere, well-being and comfort. Color, in a way, is the soul of architecture. So why shall we dismiss it and make everything too white, bland and tasteless ?”

To state his ‘color attitude’, Libeskind decided to go back to the beginning of his career: to the provocative complexity expressed in his now famous series of drawings entitled Chamber Works.

At the beginning of his architectural practice in the 1980′s, Libeskind’s Chamber Works were a pure expression of his design philosophy.

A composition dedicated to the joy of light, colour and the magic of intersecting lines, based on Libeskind’s drawing study Chamber works, which investigates the deeper meaning of geometry, form and colour.

Taking a cue from his own graphic works, he collaborated with Italian firm Oikos to fill the entire Farmacia court at the University of Milan with this stunning geometrical pattern

The installation has been created with Libeskind Design, the Milan-based studio headed by his son Lev Libeskind and is made up of cut and folded aluminum panels, painted in a new solvent-free shade of red produced by Oikos.

” These are not classic flowers,” said Libeskind, “I myself imagined them through architectural design elements thanks to research with Oikos. The strength of Oikos colour and matter consists in being born from a specific thought, from a single creative moment, as well as in having no limits and respecting the environment “.

The materials presented are the result of a life cycle with a low environmental impact, but another point is really important in this process.

Despite the industrial scope, innovative aesthetic solutions presented are “hand-crafted”: customized then shaped the needs of designers.

Daniel Libeskind Talk Q & A on Colour and Materials for Interni “Energy for Creativity ”

Preview March 2015  – Oikos releases new 2015 colour collections with Daniel Libeskind

The 33 new Oikos colour creations were presented in Cologno Monzese, ner Milan, in a press conference in which Daniel Libeskind participated to discuss his upcoming project with Oikos at the Salone

‘ Work for years with many people and reality throughout the world, but this with Oikos was a special project: for me the colour is the essence of life, not just a color pigment, ” he declared at the Conference the main exponent of current architectural deconstructivism.

OIKOS, matter and colour for Architecture invites visitors, designers and companies at the booth, where he presented “Libeskind for Oikos”, to know the details of the encounter between two common visions based on innovation, sustainability and beauty, principles pursued by the company for over thirty years.

“I work with many people and reality throughout the world, but this with Oikos was a special project: for me the colour is the essence of life, not just a colour pigment“.

Claudio Balestri, President of Oikos, said ” he was proud of Oikos’ collaboration with Libeskind:  it struck me above all for its extraordinary qualities of humanity and ethics, features that also form part of the dna of our company. I am convinced that this partnership, born from a common vision of intent, is destined to last ‘ ‘.

If nothing else the colors of Libeskind will soon have a very concrete application:   “I will use them now for Sure my house in New York, “said the architect and replacing them with those that there are now ” said Libeskind

Material Innovation at the Village, Tortona

Hosted during the Salone del Mobile in Zona Tortona, in the Superstudio garden, the Materials Village is a platform created and developed by Material ConneXion Italia, to connect Italian and international companies from many different fields in a single place on a single topic: innovation and materials.

This is the mission of OIKOS, a company that has worked for thirty years to ensure that technological innovation and decorative aesthetics collaborate in order to produce high-performance materials and colours.

Temporary Oikos Space, Brera ( for the duration of the Salone & Expo Milan )

The space was created to allow architects. designers, press and the public at large to discover Oikos’ world of color and sustainable material.

Oikos temporary showroom has been seyt up in the heart of Brera, a stone’s throw from the Academy, is a space for thoughts on colour and light and material

By reinterpreting and colouring residue and scraps of stone, marble and travertine, Oikos creates a second life for these waste materials and embodies a new concept of sustainability.

About Oikos

Our story began in 1984.

For over three decades we have produced colour and matter for architecture.

In doing so, we have never been satisfied with simply producing high quality materials, sustainable, non-toxic, technically impeccable products. We do so paying the highest attention to the lives of the people that work with us and of those that use our products.

We obtain it in a safe factory, not only physically open to the public, but mentally open to suggestions as well. Our production processes aim to conform to the latest ethical codes.

Our mode of operation corresponds with a contemporary paradigm according to which “doing business” also means to become the stimulating element, the fundamental piece, in the construction of our social context.

The Oikos began as a small, local business but today its’ name is associated with the most prestigious architectural projects within Italy and around the world.

Oikos reworked Italian tradition’s, highest decorative concepts and techniques in order to produce new materials that defy existing classifications.

And today, Oikos is unanimously considered a symbol for ethical, sustainable and technically avant-garde production.

Oikos’ research labs are constantly producing new ideas, our technicians have learned to stop at nothing, and to resolve all critical situations; our creatives consider even the most beautiful solutions of yesterday mere stepping stones, and they therefore concentrate on that, better yet, which they will create tomorrow.

Oikos colour and matter share in this story, narrating it every day in a different corner of the world

We reached the point where the idea of colour, of paintable surfaces, was no longer enough; we wanted to interact not only with the surfaces of buildings and of objects, but also with the structure itself, at the very heart of things.

To be a part of the architectural development from the very beginning.

We realized that the solution was not far off and we simply needed to go back to the root of Italian decorative tradition, studying its origin and reworking it in a contemporary light.

And so, along with paints and colours, our textures were born.

The new definition of matter. ?

In order to define it we formed a new language: no longer just catalogues and product names, but a new way of classifying decorative effects, regrouping products in families, defined only by the unique relationship that matter and colour entertain with light, creating a new reality.

This is how the new families of stratifications, corrosions, absorptions, reflections, weaves, vibrations, and transparencies were born, and how we will create new ones in the future.

Absorptions tell of the matter into which light enters, plays with colour, gets lost in it never to emerge again.

Corrosions which are born anew, like on the surface of corroded metal, when the plays on light turn sinister, narrating the signs of time, of antiquity, of the working of the elements.

Reflections, stories of a light that rests for a brief moment upon matter and colour to then return, at light speed, into the ether. Vibrations, a complex matter capable of giving the sense of rhythmic movement, of light’s vibration on all things.

Stratifications in which, layer after layer, new texture’s construction process emerges. Weaves in which, like upon an antique loom, the master decorator’s expert hand delineates the path of his, and light brings that path to life.

Transparencies, as a single material themselves, but also at the service of others: invisible and almost ethereal, light as a veil or thick as a slab of glass, protect and animate other matter giving them a new life, multiplying their possibilities, their purpose, their function

Our vision is the future.

Claudio Balestri – president of Oikos

In 1984, from the enthusiasm and passion of four young people with the determination to start a company of their own, Oikos was born.

None came from a background of family business, nor had any related experience, but each one of us wanted to do something new.

We started with a small shop, dealing in color schemes and household supplies, but we soon realized that there simply were not enough products on the market capable of meeting the changing needs in the field of interior and exterior finishes, of décor, of plasterwork.

At the end of the eighties it seemed that the era of textiles and wallpaper was nearing its end; paints were, for the most part, flat, polluting, and full of chemicals.

And so we understood that twice the challenge awaited us: an aesthetic and creative one, and one of sustainability.

We endeavored to identify models of artistic reference that might guide us along our path: we began by studying traditional Italian design, paying attention to both technique as well as past style to then reintroduce them with a contemporary twist.

Classic examples showed us the way, and our first products were Venetian stucco and velatura.

From that moment until today, Oikos’ path has been a continuous evolution that has brought us to redefining the very concept of material.

From the beginning, the unique characteristic of our production method has been our attention to the ultimate well being of the users, of the people living in spaces with Oikos finishing, and to our products’ impact on the environment.

For this reason, we invested heavily in researching non-toxic formulas that were, at the same time, able to guarantee a different effect from lime paints, traditionally presented in extremely limited color ranges, that were hazardous to the health and the environment.

For us, this working style was normal: we understood only years later, looking back, that we had been pioneers, concerned with health effects and respect for the environment at a time in which no one in the industrial world was dealing with these issues.

Today, our brand is a benchmark for the whole market.

Oikos’ strength comes from its history.

OIKOS, makes one of the best water-based, eco-friendly decorative products in the world.

In a unique “made in Italy ” style, OIKOS offers one of the most vast color range and finishing techniques available on the market for interiors and exteriors walls.

Oikos’s goal is to enhance life with color while respecting the world we live in.

A paint product that meets the strict European health standards and Australian standards,

Oikos has a comprehensive product range that is non toxic and low voc.

Solvent-free, non-toxic, biodegradable, non-allergenic, low VOC acrylic paints for interior and exterior residential, commercial and designer paints and finishes.

Featuring world leading advanced paint technologies and the most stunning designer paint finishes in Australia today.

The Oikos range has been approved by the Green Building Council of Australia. These products have also been used on a range of green star rated projects.

Paints that are durable for a lasting quality finish.

Oikos paints have been used worldwide for many years in applications including sensitive projects such as health care.

• Solvent-free
• Non-toxic
• Biodegradable
• Non-allergenic
• Low VOC
• Wash & Wear