Sun-dried mud bricks have been shaping the built environment since roughly 7,000 to 9,000 BC. Their descendants—decorative and structural tiles—arrived later, but have remained similarly foundational: humble units capable of producing walls, floors, facades, and whole architectural languages. Millennia on, builders, artisans, and designers are still finding new dimensions to push them into.
“Our starting point was the hemisphere as a unit of thought, a form so reduced it becomes almost invisible, yet repeated across a surface, it generates an entire landscape, balancing positive and negative space, fullness and void,” says Cristiano Pigazzini, Design Manager and Founding Partner at Note Design Studio, describing the new Emisferi concept developed for ever-maverick Italian tile producer Mutina. “Neither can exist without the other.”
Debuted at this month’s 3daysofdesign, the boldly geometric, colorful building-block product translates the manufacturer’s unabashedly graphic range from two to three dimensions, opening up a whole new paradigm of function and application.
Though established two decades ago, Mutina has continuously endeavored to push the expressive potential of its chief product and proprietary know-how. With this fresh, cleverly retooled—essentially extruded—design, it has taken a large leap into new territory. What is normally a finishing solution covering skeletal walls and floors has now become a structural component in and of itself. And yet, it has by no means lost its aesthetic quality.
Not just a cube, the expertly glazed terracotta brick features uniformly cut semicircular recesses on either side. This detail makes all the difference. When stacked together in a repeated pattern or assembled as an impromptu dividing wall, this formal quality allows for intriguing interplays of permeability. Light and air can still flow freely through. As the base of a table or the armature of a modular shelving system, this distinctive geometry accommodates adaptation. It is an invitation to add other elements. The potential for configuration is as endless as its range of applications. The product is as suited to indoor use as it is to outdoor implementation.
The repeated, perfectly ordered grid Emisferi can become is satisfyingly resolute, never overly temperamental. On closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that the not-entirely crystalline glaze is, in fact, imperfect. The subtle evidence of the human hand—both matte and velvety—imbues the otherwise monolithic block with unexpected depth. Plays of light and shadow emerge. Available in Beige, Light Blue, and Brown, Emisferi also invites experimentation with varied patterns.
To learn more about the collaborators behind the design and production, visit notedesignstudio.se and mutina.it, respectively.
Photography by Peter Vinther.
