At the end of June, the exhibition marking the end of the First Stone program opened at the National Coach Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Initiated in 2016 by the cultural association experimentadesign, the program involved 36 architects and designers from 15 different countries, including Michel Rojkind, Álvaro Siza, Amanda Levete, Bijoy Jain, Carla Juaçaba, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Elemental, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Manuel Aires Mateus, Mia Hägg, Paulo David, Studio MK27, Vladimir Djurovic, Claudia Moreira Salles, Estudio Campana, Fernando Brízio, Frith Kerr, Ian Anderson, Jasper Morrison, Jonathan Barnbrook, Jonathan Olivares, Jorge Silva, Michael Anastassiades, Miguel Vieira Baptista, Pedro Falcão, Peter Saville, Philippe Starck, R2 Design, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Sagmeister & Walsh, Ai Weiwei, Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, Carsten Höller, Fernanda Fragateiro, Julião Sarmento, and Marina Abramovic.
The First Stone program is an experimental research project exploring the potential of Portuguese stone, challenging designers and architects to create pieces that understand and acknowledge the world's increasing fragility through the use of stone—a beautiful, highly sustainable, and resilient material produced by local industry and artisans. The exhibition was curated by the president of experimentadesign, Guta Moura Guedes, and promoted by Assimagra (the Portuguese Mineral Resources Association). It was also supported by the President of the Portuguese Republic, who attended the opening.
As part of the experimentadesign program, activities took place at the Tivoli Theater, where Michel Rojkind participated in Debate #1 alongside architect Paulo David and landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic. Moderated by curator Aric Chen, the panel explored the relationship between contemporary art, architecture, design, and sustainability.
In September, coinciding with the end of the exhibition, a book will be published and a documentary will be presented. The design team for the piece was led by Michel Rojkind and composed of Yoshi Fukimori, Diego Lezama, Isaac Smeke, and Andrea León. The Ruivina Escuro marble piece was fabricated by Moca Stone.
For more information, visit Rojkind Arquitectos.
This article was written by Mónica Arellano. The translation is powered by AI.
