kengo kuma: casalgrande ceramic cloud

‘casalgrande ceramic cloud’ by kengo kuma for casalgrande padana

kengo kuma, developed ‘casalgrande ceramic cloud’ together with italian company casalgrande padana to celebrate their 50th year in business. the project was inaugurated earlier this month. situated on an area of over 2800 square meters of public green space, the ‘ceramics cloud’ stands on the new road foothills, at the production site of the company itself, presenting itself as ‘gateway to east’ to the ceramic district of emilia romagna.

‘ceramics cloud’ experiments, with the ceramic material in a structural form, for the first time. large elements of casalgrande valley, through the standard production, are freed of the usual value of simple coating and converted into a texture and impressive three-dimensional space with light. the result is a three-dimensional structure that experiments using innovative applications of ceramic components. made entirely with special large slabs of porcelain stoneware mechanically fastened to a specially designed metal. in its entirety, the installation is over 40 metres long and 7 metres high, and looks like an architectural object.

project info:

project manager mauro filippini, casalgrande valley spa cost control mauro filippini, casalgrande valley spa engineering ejiro, takuma sato structural engineers (tokyo) and norihiro ejiro pieter ochelen, # 402 3-20-11, takadanobaba, shinjukuku, tokyo 169-0075, japan client consultant: architecture alfonso acocella, university of ferrara; luigi alini, university of catania urban planing angelo silingardi (CCDP) facilities henry turbot (CCDP), alberto zen (CCDP) plants cesare and luigi brizzi massa, casalgrande valley spa lighting mario nanni (principal charge), federica soprani communication