Last month, a very unique exhibition was held at the Center for Architecture, in conjunction with Archtober, a month-long festival celebrating architecture and design in New York City. Cosentino, a leading producer of quartz, natural stone and recycled surfaces announced the launch of Dekton by Cosentino, a new ultra-compact surface with advanced technical properties for both interior and exterior design.

But rather than a typical product launch, with samples, press kits and perhaps a demonstration, Cosentino tDekton by Cosentinoook it a bit further with the exhibition, Surface Innovation: Redefining Boundaries of Interior and Exterior Spaces.

The goal of the initiative was to showcase the rigorous research, development and innovation led by Cosentino to bring Dekton to market, and it featured original concepts by six emerging New York architecture firms: Architecture in Formation, Desai/Chia Architecture, Easton+Combs, Manifold Architecture Studio, Moorhead & Moorhead and SOFTlab.

You can take a look at each of these innovative designs in this E-Newsletter, but they include residential cladding applications and social gathering spaces as well as some truly outside-of-the-box concepts.

If the goal for this initiative was to show the flexibility and versatility of this new product, I'd say it was achieved. The six applications each demonstrate new ways to think about surfaces and the relationship between interior and exterior spaces.

"Cosentino is passionate about innovation and Dekton represents an important evolution in the surfacing category," said Eduardo Cosentino, CEO of Cosentino North America. "It was a natural alliance to work with firms who are pushing the envelope to help shape the future of the industry. This exhibition brings together the creative energies of some of the most talented young architects in New York."

Also of note, the press conference was attended by prestigious architect Daniel Libeskind who announced he is working with the new Dekton material to create Beyond the Wall, a permanent sculpture at the Cosentino global headquarters in Spain. A project description by Cosentino reads as follows:

Beyond the Wall shows Libeskind's unique approach to architecture as a language capable of narrating the story of the human soul; a hybrid and wide-ranging force, at once a narrative, a method, an art form and a way of thinking about the world. Dekton is the deep skin of this amazing concept.

As a magazine that deals with new products on a continual basis, we continually see the pattern of materials being introduced to the marketplace and ultimately finding their role in the architecture and design community. So when we have the opportunity to see an initiative such as this one, it is exciting to consider how we will see this material used in the years to come.