The “Marmomacc Meets Design” (MMD) project again generated some of the more innovative booth designs. MMD 2010 paired leading international designers with stone processors. The pairings focused on this year’s theme - “irregular and exceptional” - in developing everything from objects to entire booth designs.

Four of the MMD booths were among the winners of the 2010 Best Communicator Award. A fifth award was given, for the first time, to a machinery company not involved in MMD. The award is presented to the booths with the best visual approaches to conveying the richness and potential of stone.

Budri and designer Patricia Urquiola were selected by the jury for the company’s exceptional execution of the designer’s poetic vision: Modules became a transparent booth perimeter through the layering of fretworked arabesques.

Designer Marco Piva, working with MGM Furnari, another winner, selected different finishes for the same material to define the interior space of the company’s booth.

Pibamarmi, a repeat winner of the award, was recognized for its collaboration with designer Manuel Aires Mateus. Despite using a single material, the jury appreciated Aires Mateus’ ability to create a variegated articulation of the booth’s space.

Tomas Sandell’s marble house, created in conjunction with Marsotto, was rewarded by the jury for the repetition of the stone module used in the structure, which effectively conveyed the essential nature of this elementary icon.

A machinery company - MDB Said srl, whose booth was designed in conjunction with Paolo Armenise and Silvia Nerbi - also received a Best Communicator Award. The jury highlighted the booth design’s ability to handle a complex situation, created by the variety of technical products on display, through a single clear paradigm. A tall perimeter wall became the element that helped make the design rational despite the booth’s heterogeneity.

Other designer/stone company pairings for MMD 2010 included: Luca Scacchetti with Finstone S.A.R.L., Aldo Cibic with Grassi Pietre, Giovanni Vragnaz with Iaconcig, and Enrico and Viola Tonucci with Stonehenge.

This year, two of the MMD projects had a regional or municipal scope: Riccardo Blumer, in conjunction with the Architecture Academy of Mendrisio, Switzerland, and the Consorzio Marmisti Bresciani, created “urban furnishings” in Botticino marble for the nearby city of Varese; and Sistema Puglia, a promotional agency for the Apulia Region, collaborated with four young, already well-known designers - Philippe Nigro, Stefan Diez, Tomàs Alonso and Luca Nichetto - each of whom worked with a different stone from Apulia.