Alessi tea and coffee towers

RESEARCH BACKGROUND Originally commissioned by the innovative Italian manufacturer Alessi, Tom Kovac's towers were first exhibited at the Architectures Non Standard exhibition, Centre Pompidou 2003-04, curated by Frédéric Migayrou and Zeynep Mennan. In 2010 they were shown in an international touring exhibition celebrating Alessi design. The towers explored design possibilities for relationships between architecture and industrial design through experimental methods and forms. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The Alessi project researches new design processes, in particular, how non-standard production techniques can create new spatial forms and systems for design. It attempts to establish a non-standard procedure for the design, fabrication and production of objects. This offers Alessi limitless production possibilities and maximum potential for creative variation. The new technological direction resists traditional categories of creative practice, encouraging a new design sensibility. The collective parts constituting each tea and coffee set are created from digital code, and carry the possibility of geometric progression and the potential to develop new design methods. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE In addition to the above international exhibitions, the towers were also shown in the Italian pavilion of the 7th Venice Architecture Biennale. Alessi, which holds the patent for the design, produced ninety-nine units of the tea and coffee towers in silver. The work is also held in the permanent collection at the Alessi Museum. It has been written up in the book 10x10_2, published by Phaidon Press, as well as the Australian newspaper and POL Oxygen magazine. The work has also been reviewed in numerous journals, including Disnso Interior, I.D. Magazine and Domus. It features in the publication for Alessi's collection edited by Alessandro Mendini, and in Leon Van Schaik's book Design City Melbourne.