A marble desk to welcome the world

Galvani Trading signs a Luminous marble counter inside the Milan Bergamo Airport in the departure area. A public space of great visibility. A concrete project to bring the public, architects, designers, enthusiasts, but also curious travellers, closer to the culture of natural stone.

Luminous marble: natural elegance, concrete sustainability

Luminous White marble was chosen for this installation, a compact and resistant African marble, quarried in the south of Angola from quarries we own. It is precisely this aspect that represents one of Galvani Trading's greatest strengths: owning the quarries directly means being able to carefully select the slabs for aesthetics and design consistency.

In the case of the desk created for the steelbloom area inside Milan Bergamo Airport, this allowed us to maintain the continuity of the lime veins, making the line cross the entire shape of the counter in a fluid and natural way, like a graphic sign accompanying the material.

It is a light-coloured marble with a fine, compact grain. Its white surface is criss-crossed by lime veins that appear luminous. Technically close to a quartzite in terms of hardness and compactness, but with all the material elegance of marble. Its beauty lies precisely in its visual simplicity: a homogeneous, elegant, luminous background that leaves room for all kinds of stylistic combinations and is suitable for both minimal contexts and more sophisticated design projects. The choice of this material is deliberate because it is perfect for high traffic public spaces.

To demonstrate this, we wanted to execute different finishes on its surface.
The characteristics of the counter:

• is 111 cm high, 247 cm long and 80 cm deep;

• polished finish on the top, for a smooth and perfect surface;

• send waterjet finish on the vertical surfaces, to enhance the natural effect of the material, reminiscent of lemon peel, smooth and soft to the touch;

• processing of the 45° angle to give continuity to the vein along its entire length.

Precisely this is one of the main objectives of the project: to show how the perception of marble changes according to the surface finish, and how touch can return different sensations depending on the processing. An invitation to discover that each finish has its own functionality and aesthetic language, capable of narrating the stone in an authentic and contemporary way.

The promotion of marble as a cultural project

This counter is not a simple piece of furniture. It is a message carved in stone, a gesture of presence that anticipates the dialogue that will take place during the days of the fair. For us, this choice means taking natural stone out of the fair, and placing it in an everyday space like an airport, it means bringing it back to the centre of real life, where it can be seen, touched, experienced.

It also means communicating that natural stone is contemporary, suitable for public environments, sustainable, and capable of dialoguing with the languages of architecture and interior design today. 

Luminous marble does not imitate nature: it is nature. Each vein is unique, each block carries with it a thousand-year-old geography. Choosing this stone to decorate a transit place like an air terminal means stopping time for an instant and reminding the traveller that even matter can speak a universal language.

The counter was made in collaboration with Veronese marble craftsmen, trusted professionals who share with us a passion for a job well done and for the appreciation of stone. The project was filmed and documented at every stage, from design to cutting, from assembly to installation, to make a video that you can watch on the airport's LED walls near the desk in the departures area.

A visual content designed to show the behind the scenes of our trade and make visible what often remains invisible: the care, expertise and supply chain that give life to each creation.

Galvani Trading, together with its Veronese partners and marble workers, believes that promoting natural stone today means combining technical expertise and communication, material and message, roots and international openness. And this counter, laid inside an airport, is the perfect synthesis of this vision: a symbolic project that looks to the future, without ever losing contact with the land from which everything originates.

We thank for the collaboration:

• Marmi Ragano
• Steelbloom
• Milan Bergamo Airport
• Archliving Studio
• Noi Vivi Arte