Echo by Marcel Wanders for Fiam Italia: a complex three-dimensional surface that reflects the light with hypnotic tints and reflexes

To display objects at home through the filter of elegant tempered glass. But also to exhibit precious objects, with complete safety, in the most exclusive stores. The Echo vitrine/container designed by Marcel Wanders for Fiam Italia has been devised with this twofold valence: home and store. By uniting craft skills with Fiam’s industrial capacity, Wanders has developed a three-dimensional surface consisting of geometric forms (squares, triangles, and rectangles), created through the iconic technique of folding Fiam glass. The result is a refined surface that reflects light, producing hypnotic tints and reflexes.

In an example of extreme  mastery of craft skills, the master glassworkers have to balance to perfection the different degrees of expansion of the materials that support the glass and that of the glass itself. The aim is that at the end of the cycle of fusion, these glass panes, now texturized, will correlate and comply with the tolerances of the aluminum structure without needing further adjustments. The structure, in painted aluminum, is available in Metalized Champagne and Volcano Grey finishes and equipped with a LED lighting system integrated in the front uprights. The base is in extra light tempered glass 6 mm thick with the back painted to match the structure. The body of the vitrine and the doors are in extralight 6 mm fumé glass fused at high heat and tempered. Inside it has extralight or fumé 8 mm tempered glass shelves. The vitrine is also available in semi-reflective glass.

At a glance

What is it?
It's a vitrine/container to hold objects so they can be viewed from the outside. It is aimed at the home furniture market and for furnishing public spaces such as boutiques and jewelers, hence it uses tempered glass.
What is the design concept?
The goal was to design a surface that physically extended to the viewer.  The glass surfaces fused at high temperatures endow the product with a marked sense of depth and, with the repetition of very different shapes on all sides of the showcase, its beauty is appreciable from every point of view.
How is it made?
It has an aluminum structure fitted with tempered glass
How is it produced and where?
The glass is fused at high temperatures to texturize and emboss the surface. Its extreme difficulty lies in combining craft skills with temperatures involved in the industrial process at around 900°C.
How is it manufactured?
The glass is fused at high temperatures to texturize and emboss the surface. Its extreme difficulty lies in combining craft skills with temperatures involved in the industrial process at around 900°C.
What makes it special?
The Echo vitrine differs from others with an aluminum structure on the market by the special process involved in fusing the glass at high temperatures. The glass so worked forms patterns in relief that have three main roles: aesthetic, functional, systemic. It can mutate into a number of shapes and sizes.
What is it like?
Elegant, refined, mysterious.
How does the designer describe it?
“This collection is another example of just how far, with Fiam, we can take the elegance of glass, endlessly discovering  new horizons.”
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