Today we would like to introduce you to Barbara Maria Atzeri (founder of the Roccas brand, which aims to create furnishing objects using Sardinian stone), who has taken part in a project that is very important to us.
As a real estate agency specialising in buying and selling property along the coastal strip of southern Sardinia, we aim to enhance the rooms of a house to give it a unique character, pursuing an initiative that aims to exalt local craftsmen (wood and iron craftsmen, ceramists, artists, real estate entrepreneurs) in order to highlight our artistic, cultural and real estate heritage.
BARBARA MARIA ATZERI: TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN THE ROCCAS COLLECTION
The passion for stone materials developed in Barbara Maria Atzeri from an early age. It was in fact in her father’s marble workshop that she acquired her first contacts with these particular materials. The colours, the lights, the veining attract her attention, bringing out feelings of well-being and curiosity in her.
<<I often went to visit him and I remember well that I was enchanted by the many colours and reflections of the stones, especially the foreign ones. They gave off energy and made me feel good. At the time, of my family, apart from my father, my brothers worked in the marble works>>.
As Barbara grew up, she came into more contact with their conformation thanks to her work in the construction industry (another activity in which the family is involved). It was on this occasion that the idea or intuition to be able to breathe new life into these materials was born. Giving a different function to stones that for years he had seen used exclusively as claddings, this is his intention.
<< I felt the need to create design elements with those stones to furnish the houses I sold and more. I felt that I could, together with the help of my brothers, use those materials, which until then had been used for cladding in our marble factory, to create beautiful and valuable objects>>.
What makes his project even more valuable is his desire to use only Sardinian stones, with the intention of paying homage to his homeland: Sardinia. Eternal, timeless, in fact the materials that this land gives us have in their DNA the strength to resist time and to present themselves in their uniqueness and elegance. Shifted into a new guise through a new material dimension emerges, thus, as told by Barbara, their new utility in furnishing elements that takes shape in the Roccas collection.
THE UNION OF PAST AND PRESENT
This collection reflects the evolution that concerns the sphere of design in Sardinia and interprets a new way of thinking about the primary element of stone. A fluid and creative dialogue between innovation and tradition. An exciting project in which shapes, high quality materials and colours are firmly bound together and harmonise. The intention is to preserve that combination of skills and knowledge handed down to the present day, leading to a revaluation of Sardinian craftsmanship, which today is the most developed in the entire Mediterranean. All this, thanks <<to our insular condition that has led the Sardinian population to have to be self-sufficient by enhancing their manual and artistic skills>>.
LIGHTNESS: THE STRONG POINT OF THESE FURNISHING OBJECTS
The Roccas collection was created in collaboration with the Venetian designer Nicolò Zavagno and the Irregolare lighting design studio. Its strong point, in addition to the aforementioned presence of the stones present on our island, lies in the lightness of the furnishing materials. Often associated with the concept of ‘heaviness’, these stones can, in fact, become ‘light’ if worked in a particular way and used for the production of furnishing accessories such as lamps, bookcases and small tables. Says Barbara: <<Many of the Roccas products are 5 mm thick, which is very difficult to achieve in stone processing>>.
Another characteristic element of the collection is its sobriety and softness. Simple but soft lines and no frills dominate, following the philosophy of ‘less is more’ and contrasting with the natural rigidity and heaviness of stone.
THE ROCCAS COLLECTION FOR YOUR HOME
Roccas furnishing products can be combined with several styles and colours, thanks to the use of neutral-coloured marbles such as Orosei marble in beige, Black Secret crystalline black, Silver Moon crystalline white and black/dark grey basalt. We therefore move from the modern classic style to the industrial style of homes, considering that many of the products are combined with Corten iron and steel such as the Spargi lamp and the Cedrino table. But there are also other styles that can be adapted to this collection, as Barbara says:
<<Nordic style homes can also be furnished with some of Roccas’ products. This style, in fact, uses a neutral palette of black, white, grey and beige, which are the colours of the collection. Furthermore, this style agrees with Roccas’ simple lines that give a clean, modern look.
In the modern rustic, natural materials such as stone and wood are present in combination with steel and iron. Colours are neutral and warm, inspired by the earth, and wood is flanked by the cold tones of grey and black, typical of the modern, contemporary style. Thus, products such as the Caprera lamp and the Serpentara chopping board match this style. In addition, the products can be inserted in a home with a minimalist style which requires furniture with a clean, sober cut or even with a vintage style: the La Marmora floor lamp, for example, is a reminiscence of 1970s lamps and is well suited to this style>>.
VALUE AND VALUE IN A SINGLE ELEMENT
The combination of high-quality natural materials such as marble and other stones, of precious metals in which some of the products are galvanised (24-carat gold, copper, chrome, etc.), of craftsmanship and therefore of ‘handmade’, and of a careful study of the design based on a profound knowledge of stone and the history of design make this collection a valuable and luxurious product.