Work: Marille

Description

“All designers, even those who deny it, harbor an obsession, a dream—or perhaps a kind of perversion, given its sheer impracticality: that of redesigning an object’s archetype. Yet very few have dared to tackle the ultimate monster, especially for Italian designers: redesigning pasta.” — Chiara Alessi.

In 1983, the historic Pastificio Voiello of Torre Annunziata commissioned the legendary Turin-based automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to create a brand-new pasta shape. Accustomed to designing sports cars rather than food, Giugiaro found his unexpected inspiration in the cross-sections of polyurethane foam gaskets. Following extensive research and prototyping, Marille was born.

The resulting shape is essentially a double rigatone turned inside out, forming a silhouette that resembles a stylized number eight with an elegant, sweeping curl. Crucially, the traditional ridges are located on the inner surface rather than the exterior—a deliberate engineering choice designed to trap and hold as much sauce as possible. Their scale is equally remarkable, measuring over three centimeters wide.

This avant-garde shape sparked immense curiosity, generating hundreds of articles in the press and captivating consumers. The version in this collection is a brass replica (four centimeters in diameter) of the original bronze extrusion die, displayed alongside traditional dies for bucatini and spaghetti for comparison.

Marille – duration 0:41
Sonic evocation of the object created by Paolo Ferrario