Hybrid Valdrada dessert plate by CTRLZAK

Hybrid is a porcelain collection where each piece is cut in two: on one side, a traditional Western design, and on the other, a motif from Eastern ceramics, with the seam running through the middle of the object. CTRLZAK, who designs it for Seletti, summarizes the intention in a phrase repeated on all the manufacturer's product sheets: “when East and West meet,” designs from a complex past evolving toward contemporary forms. In concrete terms, these are two blue and white repertoires meeting on a single surface.

Each piece has its own proper name and never forms a matching set: that is the principle of the collection; you compose it à la carte. The first wave borrows its names from Italo Calvino's invisible cities—Valdrada, Isaura, Zenobia, Fedora—and the second, dubbed Hybrid 2.0, from archaeological sites around the world: Mitla, Lothal, Djenné, Nazca. The manufacturer releases them in one single collection, and both waves mingle on the same table.

The standard material for the collection is bone china, a fine, translucent porcelain. A few pieces are the exception, and the “Materials” line on each product sheet specifies this: the glasses are made of glass, the placemats of cork or textile, the cushions of polyester. Indeed, the collection extends beyond the table, even including three hand-painted porcelain ceiling lamps.