HEART OF STONE
Evolution is not unfamiliar to the Cannata brand. Since 1910, four generations of the Cannata family have supplied, manufactured and installed the best quality, natural, engineered stone and porcelain products
Despite the changes in trends and technology in more than 100 years, Cannata has not only kept the pace, but set it too. Backed by more than a century of adaptation and innovation, Claudia King and Italo Cannata Jr. (greatgranddaughter and great-grandson of founder Liborio Cannata) have teamed up with Aimee Wolfaardt of Haardt Design Studio to launch The Dialogue Room.
On Woodstock’s Sir Lowry Road, this showroom-cum-gallery answers the call for an exploratory space in which designers, architects, creatives and their clients can cross-pollinate and create. The Dialogue Room eschews the typical showroom model. The trio envisages this as fertile ground for discussion and discovery.
Beyond Cannata’s floors, walls and countertops in marble, granite and stone, Cannata and Haardt aim to showcase local talent. With other creatives, they’ll give clients a glimpse of Cannata’s capabilities by way of new collections of furniture and decorative stone products. The idea is to team up with established or emerging designers every quarter to launch exciting new collections.
THE MORPH COLLECTION
The Dialogue Room’s inaugural furniture and accessory collection is by Cape Townbased architectural and interior design brand Studio AN. Studio AN’s Jan de Wet and Jeanne Scholtz conceptualised the collection around a table of stone samples and jelly sweets, with it emerging from the unlikely correlation drawn between these two items. These marble and terrazzo pieces take their name from the process of transformation from one form to another, and from an ability to meet desired requirements. Morph is rooted in transition and growth, principles that mirror Cannata’s.
Studio AN have created several pieces including the Morph Light, Stool, Bench, Mirror and Cabinet, that all push boundaries and amplify natural stone.
The Dialogue Room is the result of a multipronged engagement between different parties, with a united objective of creating beautiful yet functional pieces and spaces that explore the natural beauty and capabilities of stone.