How can we create a sensorial view on solid quartz material?
Caesarstone is a durable high quality material made of 93% quartz. It is mostly used for countertops in kitchens. Displays with Caesarstone are generally stylish but also clean, cold and impersonal while what happens in a kitchen is anything but clean.
Caesarstone has a tradition in collaborating with a different designer each year to create a bespoke installation which is featured at various events like IDS, Interior design show, in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.
After Tom Dixon, Snarkitecture, Jaime Hayón and Philippe Malouin I was invited to share my view on the material. It was the first time for me to work with such a solid material like Caesarstone. I was fascinated by the way Caesarstone is generally featured: as a shiny, cold and clean material central in the kitchen. Kitchens are everything but clean and cold. Kitchens are hectic places where life gets magically transformed into fuel. Kitchens are about life and death. About dirt and messiness. Kitchens are about the essence of life. It is where the raw material is transformed into edible poetry. I find it incredibly curious that the kitchen hardly ever gets presented the way it is: as the temple of life.
For Caesarstone I decided to create a tangible, interactive experience about the things that showroom-kitchens never show. About what the kitchen really is about.
The installation existed out of a forest of ribbons enticing visitors to come inside and discover Caesarstone in a different way.
Before entering, the visitors would have to choose between two seeds. Just like choosing between the red pill and the blue pill. Through an audio device the visitor would hear the voice of the seed talking.
The seed would ask to be swallowed so visitors would carry it in their belly and would discover the whole installation guided by the seed.
Elizabeth Marglez Vice president Marketing North America, CaesarstoneMarije was able to bring all our dreams to life with an incredibly interactive and thoughtful installation, using Caesarstone as the conduit for a food journey from seed to food. It was our most popular installation.
The seed would take you to an area with a designed grinding table made from Caesarstone where other seeds were ground and made into flour and invite you to try it as well. As you can understand this is a slightly scary experience for the seed but he would guide you through it like a hero.
With the ground flour a chef inside the installation made delicious fresh flatbread with mascarpone and Maple syrup for you to devour on site.
The journey with the seed consisted out of 7 stories. From writing memories in flour to sharing a seed-ball with a stranger through a hole in a wall to catching a single drop of water in your mouth to water the seed in your belly.
(The seed was very excited about this particular element)
All compact experiences were designed specifically for the installation and created out of Caesarstone. All included an interactive element ranging from a bite of food to imagining you are a growing seed.
Elizabeth Margles: When we thought about what our theme was for 2019, we reflected on both design trends and socio-economic trends. Clearly, food production, sourcing, sharing and choice were all internationally topical. Knowing we wanted to demonstrate the possibilities of Caesarstone in this context, there really was only one designer we wanted to work with who would appreciate food AND design, as well as the Design of Food. Marije was able to bring all our dreams to life with an incredibly interactive and thoughtful installation, using Caesarstone as the conduit for a food journey from seed to food. It was our most popular installation, and in fact had people returning to the journey multiple times – and not just for the food!
Commissioned by
Caesarstone Canada
Elizabeth Margles
Design assistance
Robin van der Werff
and executed by Unique Store Fixtures
Scents inside the installation by
Bernardo Fleming
thanks to IFF
