by Brianna Crandall — November 2, 2012—Landscape Forms, an industry leader in integrated collections of high-design site furniture and advanced LED lighting worldwide, has announced the introduction of the Escofet Collection, cast stone site elements from the Barcelona-based company renowned for its manufacture of contemporary designs by leading architects and artists. Landscape Forms is now the sole representative of Escofet products in the United States and Canada.
According to Landscape Forms, the collaboration is part of the company’s ongoing strategy to make available best-in-class products for outdoor spaces. Cast concrete has long been an important utilitarian and expressive material in outdoor environments, notes Landscape Forms, and the Escofet Collection adds high-design cast stone to Landscape Forms’ extensive offering of metal, wood and high-tech plastic furnishings for outdoor environments. With this collaboration, Landscape Forms says it provides architects, landscape architects and other clients with exceptional cast stone products from a company with a century-old design legacy and unsurpassed expertise in this timeless material.
Escofet, founded in 1886, has a long tradition of work with elite architects and artists from Antonio Gaudi and Joan Miro, to Ricardo Bofill, Arata Izozaki, Jean Nouvel and Richard Rogers, and numbers among its products Gaudi’s 1904 iconic six-sided paving tile selected for the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art. Since the second half of the 20th century, the company’s paving and streetscape products have become signature features of Barcelona’s urban aesthetic.
The Escofet Collection now carried by Landscape Forms includes fourteen cast stone products: ten benches, a bench and table group, two chairs, and a planter. Abril, Levit, Mayov and Socrates benches are geometric in form, striking in their solidity and simple lines. Milenio is a modular system of long rectilinear elements with straight and angled pieces that can be combined in varied arrangements and for sitting on and reclining against. Prima Marina is a bench, stool and table group with teak wood top inserts, in which the form of the elements is shared and the dimensions change to suit the function.
Five benches are more organic in form:
- Fortunato seat and back sections resemble large rocks with softened edges.
- Flor is a backless, flat, radial biomorphic shaped element that provides social and solitary seating options.
- Hebi is a system of straight and curved modules that can be placed side to side to create snaking configurations of indefinite length.
- Lungo Mare is a large cast stone landscape element with an undulating surface resembling waves and sand dunes that accommodates several people in a variety of informal postures.
- Vilnius is a reinterpretation of the tradition streetscape bench. Its one-inch-thick one-piece seat and back is cast of Liquid Stone, an ultra-high-performance cast concrete that allows casting of thin, lighter-weight, high-resistance pieces.
The Silla chair is an arresting one-piece Z-shaped form that reportedly appears to balance in air. The Sillarga lounge and Sicurta chair share a flowing form with ergonomically shaped back. Finally, Lena is a large-volume planter with a deep grooved surface that is shaped like a cone with two non-parallel planes to create tops and bottoms of different diameters and can be used in either position.
The colors of Escofet products are subtle and earth-toned, based on the composition of the aggregates used in their manufacture. No color is added or applied. Products are acid-etched or polished, depending on the design. A waterproofing finish is applied to increase longevity and wear. The products’ total appearance is designed to fit the surrounding environment as well as the expected users, and to add attraction to the facilities they complement.
The products in the collection will be backed by Landscape Forms’ three-year warrantee and commitment to complete customer satisfaction. Escofet elevates cast stone to high art, and Landscape Forms says it is proud to include the Escofet Collection in its offering.
For more information, see the Landscape Forms Web site as well as their FMLink ad.
