COMPATT

A

rammed earth construction technique used in northern Jordan since

the eighth millennium BCE and widely applied in Yemen in many mainly

rural (but not necessarily desert) contexts until the mid 19thC.

The technique, in which raw earth is rammed into rectangula

r

wooden boxes, constructs structural walls which have natural

“decoration” due to the layered colours of the di

fferent shades

of clay used

.

Federico Peri reproduces the look of this ancient technique but

with his own interpretation, which celebrates the vitality of a material

that can be in

finitely shaped and never acquires a de

fined form unless

moulded by nature or man.

In this endless lifecycle of matter, it is man himself who is primarily

renewed, as he constantly transforms his materials in response to hi

s

own individual experiences and cultural substrate. For example, in th

e

Inserti line of the Compatta collection, the designer adds geometrical

signs to the natural hues of the earth: apparently random curved lines

that evoke not only the uneven trapezia with rounded corners used

by Gio Ponti but also the curves with which Brazilian landscape artist

Roberto Burle Marx shaped his modernist gardens.

Moreover, Peri’s collection is not limited to the bidimensionalit

y

typical of his material but also includes three-dimensional subject

s

of varying shapes and size, which can be built up into mesh-backed

mosaics to create sculptural forms on walls.

This collection, strongly inspired by the work of English sculptor

William Mitchell and his three-dimensional murals in concrete, glass and

recycled materials, seems to combine some of the formal languages of

a variety of artistic movements, from Modernism to Brutalism, while als

o

referencing the issues concerning the structure of the landscape an

d

the relationship with nature at the heart of Land Art

.

Discreetly and delicately, Peri’s approach successfully combine

s

many features from the history of our civilisation and the gradua

l

emergence of architecture in a coherent, innovative project, achievin

g

renewal through his intelligent, respectful interaction with the past an

d

the world around us.

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