Stone experts SolidNature have unveiled Il Sonno Supermarket, a dreamlike marble market conceived by Samir Bantal of OMA/AMO. This ambitious project transforms the open-air garden of ME Milan Il Duca for Milan Design Week 2026 into a surreal retail landscape.
The immersive installation takes guests on a tangible geological tour of Earth and craft, recasting everyday grocery items in stone to provoke a deeper awareness of modern consumption. By placing geological time within the context of a fast-paced retail environment, the designers force a confrontation between the ephemeral nature of shopping and the eternal nature of the planet.
Supermarket Splendor
Developed by SolidNature owner David Mahyari, the installation showcases a curated sample of their massive inventory. With access to over 600 varieties of marble, onyx, travertine, quartzite, granite, and semi-precious stones sourced from every corner of the globe, the project is a testament to the diversity of the crust of the earth. Across the aisles, the team expresses their passion for natural stone through a tangible market selection of pantry staples, deli icons, and semi-precious produce.
This isn’t merely a display of material wealth, but a study in how we assign value to the things we buy. By rendering a common grocery item in a material that took millions of years to form, the installation elevates the mundane to the level of fine art. It challenges the viewer to look at simple supermarket shelves with the same reverence usually reserved for a cathedral or a museum gallery.
Solid Shopping List
Sandblasted and polished to a high sheen, the market’s shelves are lined with starry-night canned tuna alongside eternally self-stable stone-carved soups, beans, noodles, and snacks. Travertine, onyx, and marble café essentials — including coffee, tea, milk, cocoa, water, and biscuits — serve as a weighty take on afternoon tea. Further down the aisle, one finds selenite eggs and red-marbled steaks. There are even plastic-packaged tri-stone sandwiches and marble bread loaves that offer a heavy, permanent version of a quick fix. These items, usually discarded within minutes of use, are now permanent artifacts.
At the fresh produce counter, the artistry reaches a peak of delicate realism. Carefully shaped sunflower onyx bananas, pink quartz and tra-onyx apples, hermee onyx oranges, and white romance onyx grapes are presented for the picking. The natural veining of the stone mimics the organic imperfections of fruit, emphasizing the line between mineral and vegetable.
The Retail Atmosphere
Fluorescent fixtures and curated ambient sounds — complete with the occasional crackle of overhead announcements — help establish a familiar retail atmosphere. These industrial elements act as a sharp contrast to the ancient materials on display, giving the heavy geological experience a modern commercial feel.
Under an overhead truss system, daylight filters through ribbed polycarbonate walls and casts light across veined, translucent surfaces. The surrounding trees and the open Milanese sky anchor the space in its spring setting, providing a natural backdrop for the hyper-artificial supermarket layout. Reflective walls frame the ends of the installation to mirror the items and multiply the aisles into infinity. This creates an optical illusion of endless abundance, a clever nod to the overwhelming choices found in modern consumer culture.
A New Cycle of Value
By introducing natural stone into a setting defined by rapid consumption, the Il Sonno Supermarket successfully repositions the material as a carrier of value. Durable, timeless, and fundamentally connected to the earth, natural stone challenges the logic of disposability and invites a more conscious engagement with the objects we interact with every day.
Every item in the market is crafted from the offcuts of large-scale architectural projects and precious installations. This choice reinforces a cycle where material is continuously revalued rather than discarded as waste. The exhibition suggests that even the smallest fragment of stone carries the weight of history. By giving these remnants a second life as a loaf of bread or a piece of fruit, SolidNature and OMA remind us that beauty and utility can be found in what we often choose to overlook. True luxury is not just about the rare and the expensive, but about the care and craft applied to the materials that the earth provides.
Market Information
Il Sonno Supermarket ⚲
ME Milan Il Duca
Piazza della Repubblica, 13, 20124 Milan, Italy
Open 1000 — 2000, 4.21–4.26
