Edge, 2016
Powder-coated steel
300 × 300 × 250 cm
Curated by Marva Griffin
Presented at SaloneSatellite, Milan, 2016
Included in SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection, 2022
Exhibited at Triennale di Milano, 2024
First presented at SaloneSatellite in 2016, the installation consists of a 9m2 framework built entirely from black metal lines—a spatial drawing rendered at full scale. Rather than enclosing the viewer, the structure defines architectural boundaries through minimal gestures: a wall is reduced to a single line; a room becomes a mental construct.
The project originated from a simple hand-drawn square—a mark that prompted questions about representation, perception, and the nature of form. Could a square be a door, a window, a volume, or a passage? From this inquiry, Martini developed a structural vocabulary rooted in the line as a tool of human rationality—a system we use to divide, define, and organize space. Within this skeletal environment, a series of essential elements—mirror, wardrobe, bench, and a removable chair—exist as fragments of a domestic landscape, embedded within the architectural grid.
Though widely cited in the design world and often referenced for its pre-Instagram visual clarity, EDGE transcends aesthetic trends. Its inclusion in the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection and exhibition at Triennale di Milano affirmed its institutional significance. More than a single work, EDGE became the genesis of a language: a spatial philosophy where function is dematerialized, and drawing becomes architecture. It stands as a reflection on the human need to formalize the intangible—an architecture not built to contain, but to provoke thought.
