Faces and Minim Collections by Ramón Esteve

The essence of L’Antic Colonial consists in working with natural materials. We approach the origin of the material during our inspiration process. We start from the idea that the quarry itself is a great living sculpture, its silhouette changing under the forces of nature as well as human intervention. When a rock is cut, its traces express the pass of history. The traces of the stone are a testimony of the pass of time and of its own generative process.

Heat, pressure, time, and even chance work on the rock, thus generating the textures and patterns that are characteristic of the marble stone. This is certainly the greatest value, because, this way, each piece becomes an exclusive and unique object.

The industrial process is an extension of man’s handwork. This process is related to the classical technique for sculpture. The block is already containing the piece, so we just carve it out. Our objective is to play with the duality between nature and artifice. I like the concept of working with a natural material, but applying on it the laws of geometry.

The Faces collection is made of irregular polyhedrons that recall mineral formations. This kind of shape enhances the aesthetic qualities of the stone and gives it the character of a sculpture. The collection is composed by several pieces. The first one is a prism-shaped counter with a carved void that serves as a sink. The second is a topcounter washbasin. The third piece is available in two versions – the first one is compact monolith of natural stone and the second one has got a wooden box as its lower part. We also have designed a series of accessories, such as backlit mirrors, and a bas-relief made of tiles shaped in the same geometry.

The Minim collection was born from prismatic shapes based on a modular program of storage units where the washbasins are integrated. Although they look like big blocks of marble, they are in fact containers with a wooden structure.