Under the Surface

Through the installation Under the Surface – a large, submerged island, an evocative symbol of water as a source of life – designed and created by Accurat, Design Group Italia and Emiliano Ponzi (Salotto.NYC), the Salone del Mobile.Milano offers a careful look and an immersive, meaningful experience exploring the state of the art of bathroom furniture production. The project turns the spotlight on the vital importance of global water resources and their conservation, aiming to investigate and reflect on the water footprint of the bathroom furniture supply chain, encouraging strategies for the responsible and efficient use of this planet's most precious resource.

Under the Surface takes the form of a submerged island, a symbol of water as a source of life and the challenges bound up with our relationship with it. Starting from the idea of Atlantis and the suggestion of a landscape made up peaks and valleys, the island appears like an imposing and multifaceted relief. The volumes  fade from deep shades of blue and azure to white, making up an adventurous and dynamic landscape, in which it is up to the visitor to choose their own exploratory direction and how long to spend there. The sensation of finding oneself in an extra-ordinary yet real place is amplified by the projections, which recreate the movement of water in a series of waves and refractions and by a protective canvas over the installation as if it were the surface of the water, creating a space in which one can stop, learn, reflect and  allow oneself to be moved.

A visit to Under the Surface is a combination of physical and digital experience. Externally, information on water consumption made available by the World Bank is projected onto the island's reliefs in three different areas.  Data on the availability of freshwater from renewable resources per capita take the form of imaginary shoals of fish, grouped by country and region, within the time frame 1961-2019. Their movement serves to predict the possible end to this resource, unless virtuous behaviours and technological solutions are adopted to safeguard them. The data on freshwater withdrawal in the domestic and industrial sector come together to form suggestive geysers, uncontrollable phenomena intended to trigger the reflection that, if nature cannot be controlled, the relationship between man and nature can and must be. Finally, data on global rainfall in mm3 become impalpable drops destined to fall onto a plain,  intended to represent the geographical area under examination bathed by the rainfall.

International Bathroom Exhibition, Pavilion 10