Matter Barcelona at Architect@Work

At Architect@Work 2021, Matter Barcelona presented its four service lines and the latest products from The Watermark Collection and Wienerberger.

Events20 Sep 20215 min read

The 2021 edition of the Architect@Work Barcelona fair brought together the leading manufacturers in the architecture and design sector. All of them presented their most cutting-edge collections, highlighting the innovation and distinctiveness of the sector. The event took place on 15 and 16 September at the CCIB – Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona.

Matter Barcelona took part with its own space. In this article we look at the four service lines we presented at the time and the new products from the two brands that joined us: the handcrafted tapware of The Watermark Collection, with the Titanium and Highline collections, and Wienerberger's façade solutions, with the Argeton Inspirio range and several strongly textured bricks.

Architect@Work Barcelona 2021: a fair for specifiers

The event, organised to be a space for inspiration and innovation for professionals in the sector, made it possible to share new products in person, and effectively, for projects that want to stay ahead.

Architect@Work was born in Kortrijk (Belgium) in 2003 and is held in different cities with a format of its own: identical stands open to the aisles, so that each company presents its product on the same terms, whatever its size. The Barcelona edition, the third at the CCIB after those of 2018 and 2019, revolved around the theme ‘Pure Oxygen’, with an exhibition curated by MaterialDriven on materials that help to purify the air or protect us from pollution, as well as talks and panel discussions on the same subject.

Matter Barcelona's four service lines

At Matter Barcelona we presented our four lines of services for architecture and interior design studios and companies in the sector. Services aimed at supporting the evolution and growth towards a greener, more efficient and more innovative architecture.

Matter Atelier: a space for the display, advice and sale of materials and solutions that raises the quality with which architects' and interior designers' projects are materialised, through the right selection and combination of materials. It offers four services: advice, sales, bespoke solutions and product research. It has an Atelier Space for displaying products and, through activities of various kinds, energises a broad community of professionals and companies who share a love of design.
Matter HUB: a consultancy that promotes the exchange of knowledge about architectural systems and solutions, with a particular focus on innovative, sustainable and healthy products. It offers four services: consultancy, training, research and dissemination, and a material library.
The Grey Matter Agency: a strategic communications agency for manufacturers, architects and interior designers that promotes design and materials culture by conveying the unique value of professionals and companies in the sector. It offers four services: experiences and events, content creation, product launches, and digital strategy and design.
Matter and Match: an agency specialising in connecting professionals and companies in the sector, which raises the quality of projects that need multidisciplinary knowledge and experience through collaboration and synergy between different players. It understands the skills a project requires, looks for the right professional or company profile to cover them and supports the partners in their collaboration, from first contact to the end of the project.

The Watermark Collection: handcrafted tapware made in Brooklyn

We also had the pleasure of presenting the new products of two brands we work with. The first, selected by Matter Atelier, was The Watermark Collection.

The brand stands out for its high-quality craftsmanship. Herman Abel founded it in 1976 out of his passion for metal finishes, and since then it has made its brass tapware at its factory in Brooklyn (New York). Its collections are inspired by architectural details and engineering structures, and its 2021 catalogue comprised thirteen ranges and 22 finishes so that each piece could be customised. Each component goes through a combination of hand polishing, plating and spraying, and each tap is assembled and tested by hand before leaving the factory.

At the fair we presented the Titanium and Highline collections, two collections of great presence and sophistication.

Titanium: two textures and two finishes in one piece

The Titanium collection, designed in 2019 by the brand's own design studio, has an industrial look that combines two textures, smooth and knurled, with the additional option of combining different finishes on the two textures of the piece: for example, a body in Aged Brass with the knurling in Brushed Nickel. Customisation in this tapware makes it possible to design unique pieces for each space.

Highline: restrained, rounded lines

The Highline collection is tapware with restrained, rounded lines that give character to elegant, high-impact spaces. It was designed by Mark Zeff Studio in 2019 for a residential development overlooking the High Line, the elevated park in Manhattan that gives it its name, and is offered with lever or cross handles. Each of its pieces changes completely depending on the finish chosen, without ever losing its sophisticated look.

Black wall-mounted basin tap with a knurled handle on timber slat cladding — Titanium collection: wall-mounted tapware with a knurled handle.

Three-hole wall-mounted basin tap in aged brass with cross handles on a pale stucco wall — Highline collection with cross handles.

Black wall-mounted basin tap with lever handles above a grey concrete basin — Highline collection with lever handles.

Collection	Design (2019)	Main feature
Titanium	The Watermark Design Studio	Smooth and knurled, with two finishes
Highline	Mark Zeff Studio	Lever or cross handles

The two collections from The Watermark Collection presented at the fair, according to the 2021 catalogue.

Download the Watermark cataloguePDF · 129 pages · 11.4 MB

Wienerberger: terracotta and facing brick for façades

Finally, Matter HUB presented Wienerberger at the fair. Founded in Vienna in 1819, the company describes itself as the world's largest brick producer. It manufactures clay blocks, bricks and extruded terracotta for façades (including façade systems), roof tiles and clay pavers.

Argeton Inspirio: terracotta with digital engobe

As a new product, Wienerberger presented Argeton's Inspirio range: extruded terracotta pieces for ventilated façades decorated with digital engobe. A proposal that pushes the boundaries of clay façades and opens up a very wide range of printed finishes, such as those inspired by rusted metal or the concrete shown in the image.

The design is applied digitally to the piece once it has been engobed, before firing. During firing, the image fuses with the engobe and the piece to form an inseparable element. The ‘ink’ is made up of purely mineral inorganic pigments which, mixed in the right proportion, make it possible to achieve the desired effect precisely. According to the manufacturer, unlike organic coatings, these surfaces do not wash out or lose colour over time.

Sample board of Argeton Inspirio pieces with rusted-metal-look and concrete-look finishes in various tones — Finishes from Argeton's Inspirio range inspired by metal and concrete.

Facing bricks that accentuate texture

Wienerberger also presented several collections of façade bricks focused on accentuating the texture of surfaces:

Cassia Red: an extra-long brick with two different faces, one smooth and brushed and the other broken, which can be combined on the same façade.
Danish brick from Egernsund Wienerberger: pieces in the standard Danish format, 228 × 108 × 54 mm, notable for their warm tones.
Pearl: a series of glazed brick made in nine colours, with a slightly translucent, very glossy glaze that gives it its pearlescent effect.
Wasserstrich Special: long, slender bricks with a weathered look. The clay is not sanded: it is pressed into the mould and the piece is released with water, which gives it its slightly rough surface.

Apartment building with a long red brick façade and balconies with metal railings — Cassia Red on a residential façade.

Row of houses with brick façades in reddish and brown tones next to a pavement — Danish brick from Egernsund.

Stack of glazed bricks in grey, green, brown, blue and red with a pearlescent sheen — Glazed bricks from the Pearl series.

Gable of a house clad in long, thin dark grey bricks under a blue sky — Wasserstrich Special on the gable of a house.

Further information

If you would like to know more about these brands or about how we can support your project, contact us or book your visit to Matter to discover our material library.