It All Began With a Word.
Catalyst: kæt.əl.ɪst - something that makes a chemical reaction happen more quickly without itself being changed.
Catalytico specialises in realising projects principally in metal and glass or wood from the first ideas and sketches through to the final installed artwork , sculptural or architectural elements, facades, a bridge, staircase or anything you imagine. We work with the best Italian artigiani who still have passion in working with their skills that go back generations.
My Story.
John Dunbar Roake established Catalytico in 1992 after experiences in Greece as site architect, time in property development and marketing Italian brands. Catalytico was born to give the vehicle to develop project work with specialist Italian brands. This lead to collaborations with the workshops themselves working directly with the artisans and technical office of exclusive fabricators in glass and then metal. For the past 25 years metal has been the main component , working with artists and architects in realising their ideas into art pieces, architectural and sculptural elements.
John has worked with artists such as Sir Anthony Caro with Ivory Press to realise ‘Open Secret’ as a sculptural book. In St Paul’s cathedral, John has made three installations, ‘Perspectives’ with Swarovski an optical Installation on the Geometric Staircase and the sculptural support for the installation by Bill Viola for Martyrs, a work that took 12 years to realise. More recently Catalytico realised the bronze work for the new access to St Paul’s North Portal.
John has worked with different Fornace and maestro in Murano for 30 years. Glass and glass blowing has been a passion since the age of 12. The secretive world of Murano is a resource of extraordinary skills of blowing, working, casting and alchemy.
Catalytico will work with clients to find the right artisan, artist or manufacturer to realise their project.
Catalytico acts also as a consultancy to market services by manufacturers always with an artistic, artisanal or bespoke base.
Capoferri Serramenti
Capoferri Serramenti is a family business celebrating its 125th year and produces one-off glazing and facades solutions for special projects. Born out of wood , but now with a large metalwork facility, their skill in engineering windows and doors to high performance specifications both for environmental, acoustic and high security requirements is unique. There is no product, they work from the projects requirement to engineer, develop, fabricate and install a solution.
The manufacturing facility includes 3D wood milling to engineering tolerances, gluelam technology, waterjet and laser cutting and 3D metal milling all in-house as well as 3D printing for one-off seals. They have the largest in-house testing machine outside Italy’s largest facade manufacturer. There is an in-house team that engineers bullet proof solutions to NATO STANAG Level 4.
See process at www.capoferri.it
Consultancy.
Charity.
John Dunbar Roake is Chairman of the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund a charity born for the loss of his great friend to help students of architect to develop into lighting architects , as Jonathan had done. This is an ongoing commitment.
John Roake of Catalytico is the chairman of Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund and is committed to the development of young talent within the architectural and lighting industry.
For more information on the Jonathan Speirs Fund please click here.