Opulence comes at a cost and it’s not just the sort that will leave your purse lighter. Exotic woods dent, gold tarnishes, marble stains and chips. But it doesn’t stop us hankering after the materials we perceive to be effortlessly elegant and replete with character. Okay, so we also like a bit of polish and precision in our building materials these days, alongside durability and ethical manufacture, ease of installation and maintenance alongside hygienic surfaces. But what’s often been missing from modern engineered materials is old-fashioned warmth and poetry. Is it too much to ask for both?
Bringing the poetry of natural stone to high-tech surfaces
Well, increasingly not so. It has become the holy grail of surface makers to imbue their highly technical and sustainable material compositions with personality and poetry so that we can enjoy all the bullet-proof benefits alongside the warmth that natural materials offer. Biophilic design – which answers our need for nature inside our interior environments – doesn’t stop at filling homes with plant life, its colours and its patterns, it encompasses the visual appeal of natural stone, too.
Cosentino’s Dekton is one such architectural material finding ways to satisfy a desire for high functionality teamed with the charm of a richly veined stone. Dekton is a sophisticated composite formed from twenty naturally occurring minerals sintered into an ultra-compact form. Its offering has just grown with the introduction of Dekton Onirika, a family of eight finishes designed by the Texas-based interior designer, Nina Magon. Canadian by birth and Indian by heritage, Magon’s interiors display timeless refinement and luxury, built on a palette of rich hues and texture inspired by her world travels. She has tapped into her love of opulent colour and the poetry of nature’s patterns to bring her vision to the engineered stone.
Nature reconfigured
A fan of Dekton since 2016, when she used the carbon-neutral surface to clad the interior of the restaurant in a Saks Fifth Avenue’s Houston store, Magon has a clear understanding of the versatility of the material. Scratch-proof, heat-proof and stain-resistant, it can be used inside and out, as a kitchen and bathroom surface, wall cladding, building facade, flooring, furniture or shower tray. ‘With Dekton technology, we crafted Onirika’s distinct, dramatic colours and structures, bringing to life something truly unique and irreplaceable,’ says Magon. ‘This symphony of form and matter captures the eye of all who embrace it for countertops, walls, ceilings, facades, outdoor spaces, and more.’
The family includes the lightly veined Neural which teams with light colours, wood and metallic accents and the dark inky Somnia with white veining, which perfectly combines with dark woods, frosted glass and textured metal surfaces, such as copper. Awake, an interpretation of Paonazzo stone features dramatic intersections of terracotta and greys veins and pairs with neutral colours, light wood and golds, while Trance, which has a milky base streaked with warm greys and gold, works well with red oak, dark woods, blues and golds. Vigil and Daze bring the surface structure of pale Calacatta marble to the mix with its thick dark and light grey veins – the latter has a velvet texture finish – both blending well with wood metal and concrete, and finally Lucid and Morpheus – the latter also with a velvet texture finish – feature wide veins with flecks of many colours on a pale base, and compliment greys and gold shades, wood and frosted glass.
‘This beautiful collection captures the poetic beauty of natural stone harnessed by the unmatched durability and versatility made possible only by Dekton.’ says Eduardo Cosentino, CEO of Cosentino North America. ‘We cannot wait to see the creative applications our clients dream into reality.’ He is sure not to have to wait long.
