This original paving, which uses juxtaposed grey-red porphyry shapes to draw birds in flight. It was created for the entrance to the primary school in Albiano (TN). The architect Fiorino Filippi (author, with the architect Paolo Tomio, of “The Porphyry Manual”, 1994, translated into four languages and printed in over 40,000 copies, as well as other works), who designed the work, wanted to create an environment suitable for its users, i.e. children. The school building, which dates back to the 1950s, is too large and severe for a child’s eyes.
The school,” says Arch. Filippi, “is the place where we spend most of our childhood, the most formative and perhaps most beautiful time of our lives. The school structure must therefore be the holder in which all the extraordinary and multiple positive potential of every human being can emerge. With this in mind, the outdoor spaces facing the building should also be a moment of interest and curiosity, almost an invitation to approach the joy of living and understand the world that our ancestors have entrusted to us. This is why the access surface to the school area has been paved with a joyful and playful motif inspired by the research of the great artist Maurits Cornelis Escher. The figuration consists of an interconnected tessellation depicting a cheerful flight of birds. The individual figures are made up of a mosaic of juxtaposed cubes of grey porphyry and white granite. The resulting paving can also be used as the basis for games or for further education.
“In tackling this issue and confronting the potential of figurations connected with stone paving,” continues the architect, “I have seen for myself the richness and infinite possibilities of the stone element. Throughout history, many solutions have been experimented with in both figurative art and architecture. Every era and geographical area has developed its own approach and produced exceptional works, such as Michelangelo or Gaudi, to name only two. But the subject is endless. What mosaicists have designed and created inside architectural works can now also be designed and composed outdoors, embellishing and upgrading squares, parks, gardens and other public and private spaces. Let the games begin.”
