characteristic of their iconic creations, the

two designers worked on a family of three

vases, identical but in different sizes, with a

strikingly original form: the perfectly circular

mouth of each vertically extruded piece

gradually flattens to a straight line, rather like

a tiny jug with a tapered base.

The design of this part of the object is

apparently irregular, generating a three-

dimensional form with an outline that

changes depending on the observer’s

viewpoint: from the front, the piece appears

to be a solid, compact rectangular prism, but

from the side it is a slender triangle. From

the top, its shape is different again, with the

circular mouth concealing the tapered body.

In the first, prototype version, the vase rested

not only on the narrow line of its bottom,

but also on a loop of flattened material

resembling the handle of a cup, only the edge

of which touched the supporting surface.

However, the final model was completed by

a slender arc connected to the main body,

which balanced the vase by means of only

minimal contact with the ground.

Together, the vase and its supporting arc,

with their unusual, tripod-like shape, did not

resemble anything the ceramics sector had

seen before.

2

The magic of the design of Lapis – as the

vase was called, after Achille’s family’s little

pet dog – lay in its invention of a masterly

form successfully combining opposite

concepts: both slender and solid, heavy and

light, stable but only apparently unstable,

2 - In the designers’ working notes for the project, and for a very

short period after its launch, the object was actually known

as Tripo.

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