ECHO
a totem for Immaterial Connections

w/ Laboratorio Piras, Eterotopia | furniture design | La Maddalena IT| 2018



ETEROTOPIA assigned us the theme of Archipelago; together with our advisors we discovered that, despite the naturality of their definition, their main features and differences are defined by anthropic matters. Some are strictly dependant on the continent, others have a clear hierarchy between their main islands and the less populated ones; an island is defined “inhabited” since the day it was firstly harvested, rather than used as a harbour.

Nonetheless the Sea has always been a natural connection between the islands, a temporary harbourage for merchants and pirates in their vessels, it lastly provides - by negation - the very existence of an Archipelago, separating each piece of land.

While existing proposals for fixed connections between La Maddalena and Palau - i.e. the bridge from Palau or the project of a tunnel - seemed to us unfit for such an extraordinary research opportunity, we choose to concentrate on those already present kind of connections that are more immaterial, hence the title of our research.
Taking inspiration from maritime communications, radio experimentations by Marconi at Capraia and modern days technologies, our team will focus on strategies inspired by those connections that do not alterate the state of separation between islands and preserve the constellation of unique territories that defines an Archipelago.


Our Totem represents the theme by its double nature: its mute and “invisible” envelop opens up revealing a expressive interior shaped by some communications archetypes (a bit of a buoy, half a lighthouse, a splash of radio trellis) but in the end it acts as a ship.


It is equipped with a collection of tools representing the communication systems that we refer to, but it hides them under a mimetic dazzle pattern, honouring the highest peak in accidental fashion in naval military.

INVISIBLE

closed configuration


COMMUNICATIVE

open configuration




TEAM

Andrea Anselmo
Gloria Castellini
Filippo Fanciotti
Giovanni Glorialanza
Boris Hamzeian
CLIENT

ETEROTOPIA
INFO

sponsor: Regione Sardegna
production: Laboratorio Piras
photos: Giaime Meloni, Alexandra Kononchenko