It is not only a simple “augmented reality” experience, but it is a true “Augmented Surface” promoted by the famous Marazzi group at the Milan Design Week, with the aim of suggestively showing the potentials of the ceramic material.
Based on the design of the studio of Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, the specifically produced porcelain stoneware tiles of the company covered the spaces of the Courtyard of the State University’s Pharmacy, emphasizing its Renaissance proportions and lending the location an imaginative dimension. All was enhanced by the special decorative surface treatment and smart reflections’ effects.
The scenographic result is in fact derived from a theatrical device, according to which the reproduction of large-scale slabs has been “augmented” by six meters high mirrored flats and a low light source. The courtyard thus appeared doubled in two settings, even if remained half intact.
The optical illusion produced a perfectly symmetrical architecture, decorated with the colors’ richness of the large-scale stoneware tiles placed on the colonnades’ wall and the ground.
The stoneware, 150x75cm format, was produced tile by tile obtaining, as in a large mosaic, the final image. In addition to the research project to achieve the desired surface effects, the challenge for the architects and Marazzi was to produce hundreds of different plates starting from just as many print files.
