Every year, the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara presents the “Marble Architectural Award” (MAA) for special projects in natural stone. This time around: a mausoleum, a lobby and a work of art called “Parallel Lives”.

Every year, the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara presents the “Marble Architectural Awards” (MAA) at the Carraramarmotec trade fair. The focus is always on one of six different regions. In 2014, this was North America, specifically the USA, Canada and Mexico. This shows clear trends and developments within each region. The winners have now been honored at this year’s CarraraMarmotec.

The Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum in Minneapolis (USA)
Photo: Paul Crosby

In the wake of the economic crisis after 2007, there was a clear trend towards medium-sized projects in North America. There was less demand for natural stone, but where it was chosen, great emphasis was placed on quality and finish. The use of natural stone from all parts of the world again demonstrates the globalization of trade.

The lobby of the building 135 Main Street, San Francisco (USA)
Photo: Matthew Millman

The first prize in the “Exterior” category went to HGA Architects and Engineers for the Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum in Minneapolis, in which white Carrara marble and various American granites were used. The winner in the “Interior” category is the Aston Pereira and Associates studio with the lobby for the 135 Main Street building in San Francisco. They used Greek marble, Jura limestone from Germany, Italian marble and French yellow onyx. And the winner of the “Urban Design” category is Jacobo Micha Mizrahi for his “Parallel Lives” in Vera Cruz (Mexico). The monument consists of various Mexican rocks.

“Parallel Lives” in Vera Cruz, Mexico
Photo: Archetonic/Eduardo Zaletas/Quitagrapas Estudio Mexico City

The projects honored with the Marble Architectural Awards are summarized in a catalog. This catalog places special emphasis on the stone itself, its technical details and its processing. The Carraramarmotec trade fair was last held in May 2014 in Carrara, Italy.

Art museums are breaking out of the building walls – into the digital space. Apps and online tours are now part of the permanent repertoire of art education. A survey of German consumers shows how this trend is reflected in the public. Advertorial Article Parallax Article On the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, almost every exhibit can be viewed zoomed in on in full-screen mode. […]

Art museums are breaking out of the building walls – into the digital space. Apps and online tours are now part of the permanent repertoire of art education. A survey of German consumers shows how this trend is reflected in the public.

On the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, almost every exhibit can be viewed zoomed in on in full-screen mode. Johannes Vermeer’s Milkmaid from 1660 gazes absorbedly at the high-resolution beam of milk-white bliss. One pupil movement further on, a field with a red background vies for attention: this painting has been “liked” 10,806 times. Next to it, a scissor symbol encourages reproductive complicity: “Get creative”, “Download this work”!

Digital surfaces – apps on tablets and smartphones that wander through the halls in visitors’ hands – have also long been a familiar feature of museum spaces. In fact, this trend is closely linked to the exponential growth in visitor numbers at many art museums. The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart counted 375,694 tickets sold in 2015: an increase of 70 percent compared to the previous year, confirms Director Christiane Lange. New technologies – keyword “augmented reality” – are already on the rise. But can this trend, which focuses on the virtual, be sustained?

A survey conducted by the market research institute Promio on behalf of the media technology company fröbus among 1068 German consumers illustrates the reactions that different digital mediation methods evoke in visitors:

Proximity or distance to the object

The results of the survey show that the digital trend is currently moving back towards the object. Instead of keeping the works seemingly close but at a distance by clicking on a screen at home or integrated into the exhibition, the information conveyed by 3D visualization or projection directly on the object is gaining attention.

This impression is also confirmed by a cross-section of the current start-up scene in museum technology. Light choreography, turntables, 3D prints. The focus is on the work of art in all its facets: Details, reverse sides, as well as reconstructions of the original state are to be made accessible to visitors to the Museum 3.0 (replacing the digital-virtual 2.0). The Berlin start-up Clair Obscur, for example, has developed a new projection technology that can reveal the artist’s working process or hidden layers of paint directly on the painting. “It is important to us,” explains Lene Fischer, co-founder of Clair Obscur, “to create a closeness to the work, to tell the story of an object.”

interactive scape, who specialize in so-called multi-touch tables, choose a different way of communication. These release digital information when they are touched with a specially created haptic object. “Above all, a visit to a museum should be an experience – a tactile experience,” says Marcel Graf from interactive scape, describing their objective. This is particularly relevant in our digital age: “Our mediation concepts focus on a museum you can touch. An experience that you can’t have at home in front of a screen.”