- Art & Design
During Miami Art Week, ARCA presented a new collaboration with Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen. Under the name Gravitas, the brand unveiled a furniture collection in natural stone consisting of eighteen powerful objects. The collection was displayed in an installation in ARCA's showroom in Wynwood, Miami, and is now available to an international audience. The collaboration combines ARCA's technical expertise with Vincent Van Duysen's familiar design language, in which materiality and human experience are always central.
Over the past twenty years, ARCA has built a global reputation as a supplier of high-quality natural stone, wood and tiles. The brand is known for its extensive collection of natural materials, craftsmanship and its role as a catalyst in the conversation between art and design. Through collaborations with contemporary designers, ARCA continually explores the boundaries of design. The collaboration with Vincent Van Duysen is a striking example of this, in which stone is approached not as a building material but as a sculptural object. 
With this collection, the designer created a series of furniture pieces that balance mass and lightness. Chairs, tables, lounge furniture and columns are constructed from porphyry and Carrara marble from Italy, cafesina from Spain, and lava stone from Mexico. By placing rough and polished surfaces side by side, a tension is created that works both on a tactile and visual level. The objects show the stone in its purest state, without ornamentation or excess. ‘In this collection, the stone is the protagonist,’ says the designer.
By placing rough and polished surfaces side by side, a tension is created that works both on a tactile and visual level.
The collection references influences from the art world: the simplicity of Isamu Noguchi, the monumentality of Anish Kapoor and the poetry of James Turrell and Roni Horn. Just like these artists, Vincent Van Duysen seeks a balance between space, light and form. The pieces in Gravitas are intuitively constructed, often drawn by hand, with an eye for timelessness and physical presence. The manufacturing process involved collaboration with craftsmen from Italy, Spain and Mexico, giving the project a cultural dimension. 
For ARCA, the collaboration is more than just an aesthetic experiment. According to founder Gerardo Cortina Wiechers, Vincent Van Duysens' precision and eye for detail brought their materials to their full potential. CEO José Fernández adds that the collection embodies both refinement and raw beauty. This collection reaffirms that natural stone, when approached correctly, is nothing less than a key element of contemporary design.
Photography by Nick Hudson
Text by Carolien Depamelaere