Colour Archaeology – The Miami Chapter

Colour Archaeology unfolds at Alcova Miami as a meditation on earth, time, and transformation.

Artist and researcher Roberto Sironi traces the ancestral journey of ceramic colour – from mineral dust to glazed surface – while LAUFEN reinterprets its own kaolin origins through contemporary craft and design.
Curated by experience designer Annabelle Schneider, the installation layers archaeology and emotion, recalling the act of digging: uncovering pigments, memories, and stories buried beneath. In dialogue with Miami’s luminous sand and sea, it reflects on how material research becomes cultural continuity – how every fragment holds the pulse of time.
The project originates from a three-year research commissioned by LAUFEN and presented for the first time during Milan Design Week 2024, later travelling to HIX London and to LAUFEN spaces around the world. It explores the chromatic history of ceramics across eight ancient civilisations – from the blue-green hues of Egypt to the celadon greens of Imperial China and the deep reds of Roman sealed earth – resulting in a refined palette of twelve timeless colours.
In Miami, this ongoing dialogue expands into a site-specific reflection on the origins of clay and on the elemental connections between landscape, material, and craftsmanship.
Through its poetic synthesis of research and emotion, Colour Archaeology reveals how the memory of the earth continues to shape the language of contemporary design.

Colour Archaeology is a collaborative project between LAUFEN, Italian designer and researcher Roberto Sironi, and experience designer Annabelle Schneider. Commissioned by LAUFEN, a Swiss brand pioneering a holistic vision of bathroom design and innovation, the project translates Sironi’s long-term research on the chromatic evolution of ancient ceramics into a contemporary design language. Schneider’s curatorial approach connects this research to sensorial experience, transforming it into spatial narratives that explore time, materiality, and emotion. Through this dialogue between design, craftsmanship, and research, Colour Archaeology reveals how material memory continues to shape the present while reflecting LAUFEN’s commitment to cultural innovation and sustainable creativity.