Palazzo
Patterns
The Material
Palazzo patterns have their roots in a particular kind of graphic design that I have always loved. The bold architectural motifs of the mid twentieth century, decorative floors, printed textiles and abstract surface patterns all share an optimism about geometry. Simple shapes were rarely allowed to remain simple for long. Repeat them, turn them or place them alongside something unexpected and they quickly became something else.
That way of thinking sits naturally with terrazzo. There is already so much happening within the material that a clean geometric shape never looks completely flat. Marble fragments interrupt its colour, edges contain unexpected markings and one cut piece will always differ slightly from the next. It gives precise geometry a certain looseness.
Palazzo plays with that relationship. The patterns are assembled from a small vocabulary of cut shapes, but I was less interested in creating a fixed decorative motif than seeing where those shapes could lead. A curve might continue into another module, disappear completely or meet a straight line. Rotate the same elements and the emphasis changes again. What initially appears quite ordered can become surprisingly animated.
There is a little of the Italian palazzo floor in all of this, but also Gio Ponti, post-war graphics, modernist textiles and the wonderfully confident surface design of the 1950s and 60s. I am drawn to that period because pattern was allowed to have personality. Geometry could be intelligent without being solemn.
Water-jet cutting simply gives terrazzo access to that vocabulary. It allows circles, arcs, diamonds and less expected forms to be cut accurately enough to meet and repeat. Once that precision is established, the interesting part is what you choose to do with it.
Perhaps that is why Palazzo resonates so closely with my own aesthetic. I like pattern when its structure is visible but its outcome is not entirely predictable. There should be enough order to understand how something works, and enough freedom to wonder what might happen if you turn it around. Palazzo takes a familiar decorative language and starts playing with the pieces again.
The Patterns
Quadrare
Cortile
Portico
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