Learn About the Sapper Water Kettle
Going back to this example of Richard Sapper water kettle, this was a good example because
Richard wanted to have a polysensorial, multisensorial object. I mean, an object not appealing
only to the seeing or touching but also to other senses, for example, hearing. He wanted to
produce a melody. Not only that, he wanted a melody, remembering when he was a child and
living in Germany, in a village with a river, and on the river, was passing by a steamboat. He
wanted his kettle producing the same melody. After, like, one and a half year, my technicians
were not able to find a way so he was obliged to put the project on the side and to abandon it.
Until—then, 2 years later, one of Sapper’s sisters, living in Germany, found out in the Black
Forest, there’s more craftsman producing the quarries. Quarries are these pipes that you put
inside and that are producing the melody. So after some negotiation, we had a special production
of 2 different versions of pipes, with an E and with a C. Which allow me to start again with the
project, were, then, was present in ’82 and became one of the most important Alessi product.
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