Print

    Noon & Co Reinventing Stone Design

    Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
    Posted on: September 16, 2022 | | 中文

    Noon & Co

    The artistic vision of Noon & Co begins with Taimoor Noon, whose personal journey took him on a road of rediscovery, exploring traditional handcrafted stonemasonry practices through the lens of contemporary design. He has fostered a growing community, comprising talented young artisans who are passionately reviving stone craft through the platform. They actively research and develop creative action plans to source a variety of stone spread across various parts of the country. The Noon & Co team meticulously seeks raw material and carefully transports them to their workshop studio where the artisans are located. Taimoor Noon is a nature enthusiast and an entrepreneur. He founded the platform as a way to bring together what he loved the most about the outdoors into an interior space. An everlasting design that can be brought into the home carrying centuries of time sealed into the layers of aged stone. Noon & Co’s ambitious undertaking of this tradition starts in ancient history where fossilised artefacts are associated with stone design functionality or ornamentation. The transformative design philosophy captures the spirit of handcrafted stone work and combines it with industrial rendering, using modern power hand tools that can achieve a monumental scale of luxury design.

    Noon & Co

    This endeavour to understand nature within the context of interior design requires careful examinations of the stone origin, formation, and its effects on the senses. The Noon & Co store display is calming, as it is located on the lower level of the constantly busy Wilsons Plaza in F-6 Markaz allowing you to leave behind the noise of traffic and crowds. The collection has a series of river stones and cornerstones sourced from natural quarries. Their signature design has been the basin that takes a solid block of stone, which is then precisely excavated by the artisan. The handling of such a heavy object requires mastery and technical perfection that is paramount at the Noon & Co artisan guild. The collection aims to provide a glimpse into the potential of diversification when using stone and other natural raw materials such as jute and copper offering lamps, candle stands, ashtrays and the traditionally recognisable mortar and pestle. The store opened in June 2022 and in a few months it has been able to deliver an absolute revolution in design philosophy. Taimoor Noon is clear about his vision in restoring environmental sustainability for the indegenious market of stone wear. Noon & Co elevate this ancient craft retaining the generational wisdom passed down from artisan to apprentice. The innovation of creativity compassionately preserves the authenticity of the craft by carefully producing a limited selection of designs. The handcrafted foundation of Noon & Co does not take help of mass producing tools like 3D printing or blasting to achieve their work. The effort to create handmade symmetry in stone designs is painstaking and meticulous and as a result, has become a fading art practice.

    Noon & Co

    The manufacturing of the collection visits hard to reach regions of Pakistan, starting from Balochistan to Gilgit−Baltistan. The deep dive into experimenting with the materiality of stone is done as a collective, where the process is extensively discussed in order to achieve micro manufacturing. The artisan identifies the threshold of the material, creates unity in the series of designs by selecting stone patterns and executes the design using a combination of tools. The interconnectedness of the material is ephemeral as the origin is seen as the untamable wild outdoors. What was once belonging to rough terrain, stone with jagged edges and decades of debris, taken from distant mines, is transformed into a fluid spherical earthly object through continuous sanding down and buffing techniques. The collection feels lyrical as there is a harmony of colour, minimalism and motifs throughout each piece. The metaphor carried throughout the Noon & Co design collection is of the scavenger who brings home a treasured piece found on a life changing exploration. It offers the chance to possess a fragment of time that is beyond our psychological grasp, the lifespace of natural stone can be up to 100 years. In today's era of living for fast gratification, the idea of a functional object used daily in our home and lasting a century can be viewed as something eternal. Noon & Co offers modern alchemy where the concept of history, nature and time are moulded into their contemporary objects holding together the outside world within reach of your home.

    The process of making stone bowls at Noon & Co


    As the new year begins, let us also start anew. I’m delighted to extend, on behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and in my own name, new year’s greeting and sincere wishes to YOULIN magazine’s staff and readers.

    Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only with courage can we live to the fullest. 2020 was an extraordinary year. Confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Pakistan supported each other and took on the challenge in solidarity. The ironclad China-Pakistan friendship grew stronger as time went by. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor projects advanced steadily in difficult times, become a standard-bearer project of the Belt and Road Initiative in balancing pandemic prevention and project achievement. The handling capacity of the Gwadar Port has continued to rise and Afghanistan transit trade through the port has officially been launched. The Karakoram Highway Phase II upgrade project is fully open to traffic. The Lahore Orange Line project has been put into operation. The construction of Matiari-Lahore HVDC project was fully completed. A batch of green and clean energy projects, such as the Kohala and Azad Pattan hydropower plants have been substantially promoted. Development agreement for the Rashakai SEZ has been signed. The China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future has become closer and closer.

    Reviewing the past and looking to the future, we are confident to write a brilliant new chapter. The year 2021 is the 100th birthday of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. The 100-year journey of CPC surges forward with great momentum and China-Pakistan relationship has flourished in the past 70 years. Standing at a new historic point, China is willing to work together with Pakistan to further implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, connect the CPEC cooperation with the vision of the “Naya Pakistan”, promote the long-term development of the China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership with love, dedication and commitment. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan said, “We are going through fire. The sunshine has yet to come.” Yes, Pakistan’s best days are ahead, China will stand with Pakistan firmly all the way.

    YOULIN magazine is dedicated to promoting cultural exchanges between China and Pakistan and is a window for Pakistani friends to learn about China, especially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is hoped that with the joint efforts of China and Pakistan, YOULIN can listen more to the voices of readers in China and Pakistan, better play its role as a bridge to promote more effectively people-to-people bond.

    Last but not least, I would like to wish all the staff and readers of YOULIN a warm and prosper year in 2021.

    Nong Rong Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
    The People’s Republic of China to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
    January 2021