Born in 1957 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He studied electronics at Natal Technikon and embarks on a personal as the designer of “electronic design and packaging. He studied Architecture at the University of Natal, Durban. Between 1988 and 1990 he was in London where he works in a studio and he married Angela Buckland, photographer. Vince the “Corobrik Award for Top Student” at Natal University. Since 1992 he works together with Architects DVH made mainly public works.

Born in Montagnana in 1969, graduated in Architecture at the IUAV in Venice and got in 1997 the Master in Industrial Design at the Italian School of Design in Padua. She is the author of publications of architecture, including the text of restoration theory “Tutela e restauro nello Stato Pontificio”. After decades of experience in the field of Exhibit Design has founded the architectural firm Amuse, specialized in the design of museum spaces and interactive exhibits with a focus on multimedia and scientific communication. For the Laboratorio del Marmo has created the Shine collection characterized by the use of new materials like aluminum and Murano glass.

Renza Calabrese attended the Architectural Institute of Venice. She lives and works in the province of Verona. Since 1981 she has carried out projects in residential building, refurbishing, urban furnishing and landscaping. She has designed the interior of stores, boutiques, bars and restaurants in Italy and Switzerland. She has devised industrial design and environment for special events. In 2002, she created along with Chiara Cibin the Myetiku Design Group and organized a “Soft Design” exhibit. The starting point of her design is always the material and its characteristics. In each of her projects she strives to respect the dynamic properties of the materials she uses, while pursuing the purity of form and execution. Her decorations are always compatible with the function of the object; at the root of each project is the idea that aesthetics and functionality must be perceived immediately. The designed object should adapt naturally to daily life and behaviour. simplicity and immediacy are the basis of the process from the creative phase to reality.

Chiara Cibin started her career as an architect at the Som Studio in San Francisco, U.S.A., specialized in residential and town-planning projects. She is a dedicated researcher and has been a lecturer in materials for industrial design at the University of Venice, as well as a visiting professor at Ive in hong kong and at Nus in Singapor. She has also worked as a designer for LDM Italia, creating the on design off collection which was shown at the Cologne exhibit, the Macef, the satellite fair and at the Milan furniture fair. Her enticement for associating the two-dimensional aesthetics of industrial design with the archaic aspects of the Vicenza Stone has led Chiara Cibin to achieve linear patterns and rationalistic austerity that thoroughly enhance the tactile and chromatic qualities of the stone.

Cristina Cicero was born in Tripoli (Libya) in 1966 He studied in Venice where she graduated in 1989 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sculpture. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and art exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Participate with your projects to international sculpture symposiums, winning prizes and awards in Italy, France, Norway, People’s Republic of China and the United States. In 1994 he won the competition organized by the City of Vicenza for the construction of a public work. Some of the public works carried out are on permanent display in Atina (FR), Fanano (MO), Buddusò (SS), Ardauli (OR), TCA), Lingfield (CT), Caorle (VE) and Vicenza. Lives and works in Vicenza.

Carlo Cumini was born in Gemona del Friuli in 1953 where he still works today. From 1979 to 1984 he designed single pieces of furniture that the Cumini Firm started producing in series from 1985. In 1989 he established in Pordenone the Horm Firm of which he is stili to this day the artistic director, with his brothers Sergio and Stefano and Paolo Chiarot, Stefano Colin and Luciano Marson. He began designing lamps for Luce and Nuova Auras. In 1993 he designed and carried out some works for the “Giardino di Pietra” collection of the Laboratorio del Marmo.

Riccardo Dalisi was born in Potenza in 1931, but lives in Naples. Since 1962 he has led experiments on the architectural form through light and geometry and has taken part in many Architecture competitions. He teaches at Naples University. He has written several books, among which “Architettura d’animazione” (Rome 1974) and an essay on Gaudi (Milan 1979). He has designed the Borsa Merci in Naples with Capobianco and Pica, parts of Messina University, churches and houses. Alessandro Mendini has defined him “the brain of design in the south”; He’s considered the initiator of research on design in the south of Italy.

Silvia Sandini was born in Thiene in 1958. She developed the interest in the communication field with advertising studios in Vicenza and Venice. Later on she was involved in the study of “Lettering” for firms and professional studios. Before getting a degree in Architecture at Venice University in 1992 she collaborated with the Ecopiano Studio in Padua. She has helped “Laboratorio del Marmo” from 1992 to 1995 with image and product researching. She has created the furnishing collection “Giardino di Pietra” (Stone Garden) and is presenting in this catalogue a remarkable collection of revisited classical works.

Giandomenico Sandri was born in Este in 1949. He got a diploma at the “Istituto d’Arte P. Selvatico” in Padua and specialized at the Scuola d’Arte del Camini in Venice. His first public work was in 1974 for the Comune of Este. He has been teaching wood sculpture at the Istituto d’Arte A. Corradini in Este since 1974. He is involved in restoring stone works for private and public concerns. In 1988 he started his collaboration with the Laboratorio del Marmo creating a collection that has developed the delicate relationship between sculpture and useful objects. Thanks to the cooperation with the Italian Institute of Foreign Trade, he alternates sculpture to restoration works in several cities of the world, such as Beijing, Dubai, St. Petersburg, Acca, Hanoi, Buenos Aires and Venice. His latest works created for LDM witness Sandri’s very rich poetic who looks unlimited in finding new ways of playing with a material that seems to talk with his hands.

Denis Santachiara was born in Reggio Emilia in 1950. He began his activity as a designer for car companies and as a consultant for the Centro Stile of Fiat. Since 1976 he has concentrated his technological research creating high technology and artificial density images and objects situated between art, design and architecture. He has proposed new categories of design and objects: “Neoimmage and neodesign”. He Look part in the “Soffice at the Biennale in Venice and Documento 8/Kassel with “The singe of Habitat”. His works ore part of the M.O.M.A, permanent collection in Tokyo and in New York and at the Decorative Art Museum in Paris.

Kazuhiko Tomita was born in Nagasaky, Japan in 1965. He graduated in Industrial Design at Chiba University in 1989 and won the “Design Eye” award in the same year. In 1990 he attend Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1991 he won the first prize in the competition “Architectural Future of stainless steel” and in 1992 he won the “Marchett Award” golden prize. He designed vases for Arcade. In 1994 he took parts in “Stars” with A. Mendini and E. Sottsass at the Messe in Frankfurt. The young designer has received several awards, such as the “Red Dot” award for product design at the Essen Museum, the judge’s prize at the International Ceramic Exhibition, the Nippon Craft Design Exhibition in Tokyo and the Frankfurt Messe Design Plus Award.