Collaborations
Marimar × Fondazione Albini is conceived as a shared research, curated by Simple Flair, exploring the use of natural stone in the work of Franco Albini. It is a dialogue between material and project, between technical expertise and cultural value, intertwining the visions of Marimar and the Fondazione Albini to present stone as a language of building, a bridge between past and contemporaneity.
The work of Franco Albini is marked by a constant focus on detail and a deep interest in material, its types and specificities. Material choices are never accidental, but respond directly to functional and aesthetic requirements, in accordance with their intrinsic qualities. For Albini, the designer’s technical knowledge is part of the creative process: understanding the nature of materials means translating them into the architectural language, enhancing their expressive and constructive potential.
His projects balance materials of great modernity — steel, glass, metal tubing — with traditional ones such as wood, rattan and natural stone, which provides continuity between structure and form. In this synthesis of technique and sensitivity, Albini restores to stone its most authentic dimension: an instrument of truth, measure and permanence.
Learn more about the Marimar × Fondazione Albini research.
Every project reflects its own time, and in Franco Albini’s work this bond is evident through the use of natural stone. He works with materials from regional quarries, within a market that was still local and limited between the first and second post‑war periods.
Aesthetic research intersects with material availability: Albini recombines accessible resources to shape his design language. His works feature stones such as Verde Alpi, Serizzo and Vallestrona (now exhausted). Today, the stone market has expanded globally, offering an unprecedented range of materials, colours and performances.
Throughout his work, Albini employs natural stone with awareness and restraint, recognising its functional as well as aesthetic role. The material becomes a tool to define the quality of space, sometimes discreet, sometimes expressive, yet always consistent with function.
His interiors include precious marbles such as Verde Alpi and Carrara, while for exteriors he favours durable materials like Beola, with a solid, long‑lasting character. From this approach comes the renowned *Stanza per un Uomo*, where stone becomes an architectural language. Today, amid countless variants and finishes, value lies in respecting its material authenticity.
The work of Franco Albini arose in a time when artisan labour was widespread, while natural stone remained a precious and complex resource to process. His projects reveal a balance between limited means and the pursuit of quality, where design ingenuity offsets production constraints, yielding refined results.
In the absence of large formats, Albini used hand‑made mosaics, turning fragments into harmonious, modular surfaces. Today, as then, design is the true instrument of economy and beauty: the challenge is to customise stone applications, minimising waste and maximising resources.
Natural stone, in Albini’s work, embodies a balance between function and design culture. The collaboration between Marimar and the Fondazione Albini, curated by Simple Flair, reaffirms this vision with a concrete approach, showing how material knowledge remains central to the design process. To understand the material means to use it with awareness, creating architecture that is durable, measured and current.
Learn more about the Marimar × Fondazione Albini research.
