Young Projects and Paola Lenti Release "Cluster," a New Tile Collection
Milan, Italy—New York-based architecture practice Young Projects and Milan-based design brand Paola Lenti have collaboratively developed “Cluster,” a new collection of tile made from smooth cement and clusters of coarse aggregate chips. The collection expands on Young Projects and Paola Lenti’s shared interest in material experimentation and the manipulation of traditional artisanal techniques. “Cluster” debuted at the Salone del Mobile 2021 in Milan and is currently on view in the Paola Lenti showroom, located just north of Milan in Meda at Via Po, 100, 20821.
“Similar to several of our prototypes, ‘Cluster’ is the result of interrogating a technique for making with the intent of revealing unexpected material qualities,” says Bryan Young, founder and co-principal of Young Projects.
As the first tile collection in an ongoing partnership between Young Projects and Paola Lenti, “Cluster” is the result of two years of intensive collaborative prototyping that explored a wide range of materials, formal qualities, and scales. In the context of Young Projects’ overall practice, “Cluster” builds on concrete experiments developed for the firm’s Rock House by examining similar relationships of geometry, texture, and color.
“Cluster” is made from the same material ingredients—homogeneous smooth cement and colored coarse aggregate—and comes in two colorways—a teal cement base with white aggregate and a creamy white cement base with black aggregate. Each colorway is cut in two directions, resulting in a series of three-dimensional square tiles with graphically contrasting circles and semicircles.
When assembled and deployed at an architectural scale, such as on an exterior facade, the repetition and rotation of the two tile types together create a playful irregularity and dynamic movement across the tiled surface, while each individual tile appears to contain floating abstracted elements, frozen in a moment of suspension.
Says Young of the collaboration with Paola Lenti, “We share an interest in experimenting with the fabrication process. This often involves hybrid methodologies that blend hand-made artisanal practices with technological advancements in manufacturing.”
Project Credits:
Design: Young Projects + Paola Lenti
Young Projects Team: Bryan Young, Noah Marciniak, Noor Alawadhi
Photography courtesy Paola Lenti
