Sculpting the Unconventional: MMOOS.

Inheriting a rare marble-working expertise cultivated in Turin since 1919 by the Sommo family, MMOOS. carries this legacy into the future, combining artisanal excellence with cutting-edge aesthetics. MMOOS. is a contemporary Italian design brand creating monomaterial, essential, and unconventional objects, it blends tradition and innovation to transform raw matter into unique pieces, even in serial production.

MMOOS. is a brand born in Turin, emerging from a company with over a century of expertise in marble craftsmanship. What are the distinctive elements that define the highly contemporary essence of your products?

MMOOS. is deeply rooted in artisanal knowledge, specifically in the selection and craftsmanship of marble and natural stones, passed down through four generations of the Sommo family. Our collections project this heritage into the present through collaborations with internationally renowned design studios. The result is an approach that is fundamentally sculptural, rich in symbolism, and deliberately unconventional.
Our idea of responsible design also guides us in seeking out previously quarried but unused stone materials, in an effort to reduce extractive practices and to highlight rare varieties—such as the Rosa Peralba marble featured in the MOSTRO collection.

MOSTRO is the first collection of furniture and furnishings by MMOOS., designed by the architecture studio BRH+, which also oversees the brand’s art direction. Each piece, crafted from Rosa Peralba marble and travertine, crystallizes a refined conceptual vision through sculptural symbolism. What does MOSTRO mean, and how was the project born?

The word mostro comes from the Latin monstrum, meaning a prodigy or an unusual and supernatural event. A “monster” is the inverse of the familiar; it represents a different kind of order—an interruption in the pattern of the ordinary. Taken in its etymological sense, mostro becomes an invitation to embrace the idea of the non-ordinary, which takes shape in this collection through the poetic interplay of volumes and surfaces.
The travertine is left unfilled and cut parallel to its metamorphic veining, revealing its intrinsic structural design. In stark visual and tactile contrast, the Rosa Peralba marble is sculpted from solid blocks, shaped in the round, and hand-polished—transformed into a partially variable geometry, like a fragment of architecture that merges the ancient with the contemporary.

Sustainability in the production chain plays a central role, both in the MOSTRO collection and in your daily practice. With a strong commitment to sustainability, MMOOS. prioritizes the use of previously quarried materials to reduce extractive practices. What criteria do you use when selecting blocks for artisanal processing?

A key part of MMOOS.’s work involves surveying abandoned sites in search of unused stone materials that can be brought back to life in our collections. In the case of Rosa Peralba marble, all the blocks used in the MOSTRO collection come from material extracted from an old quarry in the Dolomite Alps, near Brunico, which was shut down in the 1990s.
The choice to work with already quarried stone defines MMOOS.’s identity and drives our design philosophy. We believe that a truly contemporary approach to design must confront the need to minimize environmental impact.