We are excited to present you the project of Leonardo Novolissi and Andre Di Cristo, with whom we collaborated to create BLOCK: a charging stand for smartphones. Leonardo and Andre are students of Professor Sabrina Sguanci’s course at ISIA in Florence.

What is BLOCK?

BLOCK is basically a charging stand for the phone, but with respect to the basic morphology of this product, it eliminates the primary function of the smartphone, limiting the display of the screen to a small vertical window; moreover, it has been designed so as not to allow the phone to be used from the moment it is turned on.

It is also designed not to allow the phone to be used from the moment it is put on charge, effectively putting a block between the user and the device.

Obviously, if they had stopped here, this project would have seemed more like a provocation, without any real commercial value; this is why they have added an application to it, through which the user can both see his or her progress thanks to an interface showing the time gained by not using the smartphone, and also receive small prizes in the form of discount vouchers for various events: bike or scooter rentals for city commuting, gyms, yoga, restaurants, etc… .

Materials used:

Carrara marble

Carrara marble is an atavistic material, linked to a long artistic and artisan tradition. For this reason, using it in a project with modern connotations creates an interesting contrast, fuelled even more by a digital production. It also fits well with the project’s underlying concepts, thanks to its translucence and colour, which recall the inspirational source of ice but also the monolithic one.

Want to find out more about the marble? Click here

Brass

Brass is the contrast that allows us to use marble, without transforming

our object into something too “ancient”, also made by digital

through digital manufacturing processes. The marble part is obtained from blocks of marble sectioned with respect to a cutting plane that identifies the size of the object; once this extrusion is obtained, the marble is excavated with a CNC equipped with water cooling, so as not to cause any damage.

Once this extrusion is obtained, the marble is carved with a CNC equipped with water cooling, so as not to overheat the stone surface.

Processing

From a production point of view, the workings designed for the object are mainly based on digital manufacturing processes.

The marble part is obtained from blocks of marble cut in relation to a cutting plane that identifies the size of the object; once this extrusion is obtained, the marble is carved with a CNC machine equipped with water cooling, so as not to overheat the stone surface.

CNC machining involves two phases: a first phase of sketching out the shapes and a second phase of finishing. The two phases differ in the type of head used.

The metal part, on the other hand, is produced through sintering moulding: the brass powder, heated by a laser, is soldered together, giving life to our object. An operator will then polish the object, making the layering left by the moulding method invisible.