Now in its seventh year, the Creative Book is a publication which is evidence of the attention and interest of Casalgrande Padana for the world of architecture, design, research and innovation. An attention and an interest that have always been the key points of the development strategies of the company, which, partly to celebrate its first 50th anniversary, wanted to firmly reassert its deep bond with the culture of design that is a distinctive trait of its work.
The many cultural events that Casalgrande Padana has promoted over the last half a century includes a most important one, the Grand Prix, an international architectural award launched in 1990 and now regarded as one of the leading international events for the world of ceramic design.
The results of every award are collected in the Creative Book, a publication by Casalgrande Padana which in the last five years has been supported by Casabella, a prestigious international architecture magazine that for over eighty years has been one of the main parties to the cultural debate on design.
This initiative, basically intended as a work tool for professionals, has become a volume that provides, in a prestigious and well-designed form, many cues for reflection, not just on the expressive and working potentials of stoneware, its structural qualities and aesthetic features, but also on the architectural features that are enhanced and improved by such qualities to excellent standards.
The volume provides a selection of the most important entrant projects, in an overview which is divided into four categories: shopping malls and office buildings; public housing, industrial buildings; residential buildings; facings, paving solutions and swimming-pools. Each project is illustrated by a number of pictures, a technical data sheet, with a list of materials, and a short biography of the designers.
Through these real-life examples, the Creative Book aims to boost new ways to make research into and experiment with new aesthetic-composition and technical-performance areas about the use of ceramic materials in architecture to provide designers with useful recommendations about their work.
Printed as a 70,000 run, the Creative Book, as well as being sold as a supplement to issue no. 795 of Casabella, out in November 2010, can be received as a complimentary copy by contacting Casalgrande Padana.