Page 23 - Demo

Slippery rock Gazette
Ripple Margraf Façade
July 2020|23
numerical rules, a sense of order and proportional thinking that may paradoxically be closer to Palladio than Frank Gehry. We’re lucky today because we have much more powerful calculation tools than in the past. They enable us to push beyond traditional habits and methods without betraying the spirit that sought out an ideal sense of beauty and proportionality, as the sublime goal of creation.”
The Margraf Area is becom- ing a real “capital of quintessen- tial Italian excellence,” situated in a strategic location near the Montebello exit of the A4 motor- way between Milan and Venice.
Margraf's story (former Industria Marmi Vicentini) started in Chiampo, a province of Vicenza, in 1906. Since its inception, the company has been devoted to ac- curate research and developing new technologies, working in close collaboration with international ar- chitects. After more than a century, today Margraf is a world-leader in this field. Visit www.margraf.it and www.facebook.com/margraf. industriamarmivicentini .
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The total surface area of the mar- ble covering the entire wall is 600 m2, or 6,458 square feet of material.
The ripples on the outside grad- ually get bigger towards the cen- ter and flatter towards the edges, reaching a total difference in depth of 70 cm, with 35 cm of convex rounding on the even columns and 35 cm of concave rounding on the odd columns. Each column is made of up 10 pieces and formed
from the same block of marble thanks to sequential, shaped di- amond wire cutting. The con- touring process with individual blocks means that marble waste is minimal, while the sequential cutting enables the external and internal sides of each piece to be processed at the same time.
The fact that the ten pieces in each column are made from the same block means that they have distinctive, unique veins and col- oring. Once they are joined back
together vertically, they have an vein-matched texture.
It was necessary to take great care not only with the complex composition procedure but also with the issues relating to the thicknesses, which could not be allowed to vary too much. The 3D forms of the ripples were not just drawn up arbitrarily: they are the product of meticulous efforts to balance maximum visual appeal with minimum waste, consistency in the thicknesses, the need for mechanical attachments to the metal structure, and the limits im- posed by the cutting machinery.
There is also an opening in the wall so that people can go through the door into the building. It is sloped to match the ripples.
“This project is interesting because it is innovative but also extremely classical at the same time,” states the designer, Raffaello Galiotto. “It puts for- ward and sums up some of the con- cepts that I have developed in the past in a number of experimental marble works: reducing waste by choosing separation over removal, computer-aided design and CNC machining. It was conceived and designed on computers, following
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