Freedom of cladding

Ongoing experimentation with different codes and styles to make ceramic (and other) materials establish a dialogue with architecture and interior design. Clearly seen at the latest Cersaie

Maximum compositional freedom, also a bit schizophrenic, seems to be the red thread through the proposals on view in the 10 pavilions of Cersaie 2019 on ceramic facings and others. With maximum stylistic variety. Though still with remarkable performance characteristics, the range of solutions for crossover interior and exterior design is marked by oppositions and contrasts, in aesthetic, inspirational, materic, chromatic and proportional terms, also triggered by a taste for research and technological innovation of products and processes. With the aim of generating aesthetic and visual continuity in architectural spaces, the expressive potentialities are actually multiplied or fragmented, in keeping with many dichotomies: micro/macro, composition/destructuring, horizontal/vertical, order/randomness, emphasis/concealment, flat/3D, tactile/visual, natural/hyperdecorative, minimalism/excess, geometric/botanical, in a continuous measurement and variation of scale, magnitude, proportion, symmetry. At the service of designers and architects, but also of the collective imagination.

Concreto & Zoom, Lea Ceramiche
Concreto & Zoom, Lea Ceramiche

Concreto & Zoom, Lea Ceramiche
Flanked by Zoom, Concreto expands and becomes a modular collection with a versatile base offered with new thicknesses (10, 11 and 20 mm), formats (up to 120x260cm), textures and decorative effects. Zoom is the macro-representation of four patterns that play with the organic sensations of concrete – Reef, Dry, Foam and Tide – taken to extremes by a vigorous, enlarged treatment. The graphic motifs, for installation on floors or walls in a random way, come in the format 60×60 cm to create true decorated carpets, or in the classic size of 20×20 cm, reinterpreting the traditional form of cementine.

Pulp, 41zero42
Pulp, 41zero42

Pulp, 41zero42
Marble effect becomes graphic, colorful, surreal, almost ‘arrogant.’ The starting point for this collection in batch colored high-resolution digital-print porcelain stoneware is an arabesque reinterpreted in 5 colors – Black, Gold, Red, Green, Blue – enhanced by 3 different surfaces with natural, polished or matte brushed and slightly hammered effects, available in slabs of 60×120 cm, strips of 10×60 cm, and mosaic tile in the 10×10 format. The exuberant graphic dynamism is completed and balanced by the Parallel elements, in 60×120 and 20×60 cm formats, with a matte white grosgrain structure.

Limpha, Casalgrande Padana
Limpha, Casalgrande Padana

Limpha, Casalgrande Padana
A tribute to the botanical walls that clad the facades of buildings, the Limpha collection has two new variants, Coral Rose, which adds the touch of color of climbing roses to the green of the leaves, and Larix, based on the image of tree bark. The porcelain stoneware slabs, in the format 120×240 cm with thickness of 6.5 mm, also imitate the functions of greenery thanks to the super-hydrophilicity of the ceramic surface and the Bios Self Cleaning® technology, developed in collaboration between the Casalgrande Padana research center and Toto, a pioneer in the field of photocatalytic technology with the brand Hydrotec. In sunlight, the surfaces reduce the presence of pollutants in the air and break down the dirt that settles on the surface, so it can be removed by rain.

Quilt, Mosaico+
Quilt, Mosaico+

Quilt, Mosaico+, Marialaura Rossiello for Studio Irvine
The inspiration is an English quilt that combines patches with stitching that is also decoration in its own right, starting from a 9×9 cm piece in full-body porcelain stoneware in which a segment is cut from the rest of the block. The result is a reinterpreted mosaic whose tiles – larger than the classic ones – can be installed in a regular way to recreate the geometric form, or in a random manner to form an irregular pattern that links back to antique terrazzo floors. The seams, like stitching, produce the decoration. There are three base tones – Chalk, Clay and Mud – in smooth or structured (RAW) variants, and three colors for the segment on Chalk (Ochre, Cameo, Sugar Paper), one on Clay (Mud) and one on Mud (Slate). The newness also comes from the fact that the tile can be placed on the floor, thanks to the strong, treadable materials.

Vetri Lux collection, Ceramiche Refin
Vetri Lux collection, Ceramiche Refin

Vetri Lux, Refin
Neutral colors – White and Natural – but with a forceful glass effect in this extension of a collection for horizontal and vertical architectural surfaces based on a long research effort. The contrasting hue at the borders brings depth to the geometric grid, while the shiny finish reflects and emphasizes light. In two formats: 120×278 cm with a thickness of 6 mm, and 120×120 cm with a thickness of 9 mm.

Chymia ©Modo Fotografia
Chymia ©Modo Fotografia

Chymia, Mutina, Laboratorio Avallone
The project starts thanks to collaboration with Gennaro Avallone and develops on the multidisciplinary terrain of the applied arts, combining the languages of painting and sculpture to create furnishing components and objects. Between white and black, patterns and material effects, order and randomness, the glazed porcelain stoneware collection is composed of 22 elements (30×30 cm, thickness 10 mm) obtained by combining the basic structures with 11 graphic designs. From the wide available range, four mixes have been selected, composed with 6 different articles, in which the two chromatic dimensions are never separated, but coexist in a state of dualism. The research conducted on glazes and raw materials, combined with the combination of traditional applications and modern technology, have made it possible to obtain a product of the highest quality, enhanced by the use of absolute colors.

Regolo, Flat bagno
Regolo, Flat bagno

Regolo, Appiani, FUD
The modular system is the result of exploration of plane geometries and surfaces, in which the uniformity is ‘rippled’ by a small detail in a dualism of full and empty, soft and light reliefs. The new palette offers 9 hues – Panno, Lunaria, Ardesia, Ossido, Ceruleo, Cipria, Mattone, Tanè, Tabacco – of which three are neutral and six are desaturated, both warm and cold. The Flat/Ultramatte finish, with a smooth, uniform surface, is combined with three versions with relief effects: Domino 50 and 100, featuring dots in a regular formation on the whole surface or only on half of it; Tatami, with the repetition of a crossed pattern; and Bamboo, in which a line crosses the ceramic, revealing its structure and strength. The format 7.5×30 cm (thickness 7 mm) guarantees perfect matching with the Appiani mosaic tile collections in a potentially infinite compositional game.

Micro., Progettomicro
Micro., Progettomicro

Micro., Progettomicro
Recently acquired by Terratinta, the brand presents 6 collections for architecture in 13 different colors, simple forms and small (or very small) patterns. Micromosaics, mosaic tiles of very small size in porcelain stoneware; Microtiles, small units designed by Roberto Cicchinè; Microtiles and Trapezi, designed by Giampaolo Benedini; Micropapers, geometric patterns on paper; Microrubbers, classic geometric lines on rubber surfaces, in partnership with REMP Techno; Micropaints, from white to black, 13 colored paints, in partnership with The Paint Makers Co.

In-side, Laminam
IN-SIDE, LAMINAM

In-side, Laminam
Large formats, a natural look and material continuity of mass, surface and border are the traits of the innovative technology based on the mixing of raw materials with variable granular size, from which to obtain a materic mixture typical of stone, capable of reproducing its image in both the surface and the body of the tile. The Pietra Piasentina Taupe finish already seen at the Salone del Mobile is now joined by 4 new products in the 1620×3240 mm format, and – only for this new series – in 1200x3000mm: Pietra Piasentina Gray, Pietra di Cardoso Black and Gray, Brown Porphyry with different thickness for indoor and outdoor use, and Natural and Sunburst finishes.

Londonart, GlassWallpaper
Londonart, GlassWallpaper

Londonart, Glass Collection
The new collection of wallpaper that stands up to water is for wet zones, and particularly the bathroom, which becomes a place of imagination in which to give free rein to chromatic experimentation, retro citations, touches of irony and hyper-contemporary and industrial fascinations, underwater landscapes, worlds inhabited by seashells, seaweed and aquatic creatures, floral and geometric, romantic or linear motifs. The two latest subjects created by Marcel Wanders are Atlantis and Mondrian Doha.