Remarkably thin marble slabs and a sublimely simple faucet are the winner of 2017 AZ Awards of Merit in the category of Architectural Products.
Project: Think Thin
Designer: Matt Karlin
Manufacturer: Nemo Tile & Stone, U.S.
Massive slabs of genuine marble have evoked luxury since the dawn of architecture, but at a financial and environmental cost. Think Thin, a series of all-purpose marble slabs from Nemo Tile & Stone, brings a notable trend in the tile industry – extra-large sizes with an ultra-slim profile – to real marble, in tones from milky bianco to dusky graphite. Nemo’s state-of-the-art stone-cutting technology enables marble to be cut at depths of 1.2 centimetres (much less than the usual thickness), even at dimensions over a metre squared. The remarkable thinness makes the slabs lighter and thus easier and more eco-friendly to ship, schlep and install.
Project: Andrew
Studio: Co.Studio, Belgium
Designers: Gert Van den Steen and Christian Van Suetendael with Marc Dekegel, Alain Gillieaux and Louis-Philippe Gilleaux
Manufacturer: RVB, Belgium
With its slab-like stem and neatly curved spout, Co.Studio’s Andrew faucet is the pinnacle of sublime simplicity. To enhance its austerity, the designers did away with anything remotely superfluous, like knobs or handles. Instead, the faucet’s water flow is controlled by a single thin lever that operates like a joystick, then disappears into a notch in the faucet’s base when not in use, preserving an exceptionally clean profile without sacrificing ergonomics. It might take a while for users to apprehend the hidden controls, but that mystifying element offers its own kind of poetic beauty.