Eight tile designs briefing the innovations in the surface industry

Tiles, one of the earliest building materials have been upgraded as decorative materials. Tile designs, ranging from terrazzo to brick tiles, have evolved over centuries in terms of production, usage, and materials, and are valued for their strength and aesthetics. Examples of ancient tiles used as a material for ornamental art can be found in Mesopotamia, Persepolis, and Egypt.

The Industrial Revolution introduced the transition for production of tiles from traditional handwork to machine manufacturing. This brought a major turning point in the history of tile design, as the mass production made the material more cheaper and accessible. Despite the fact that the traditional method of production was replaced, the handmade and hand-painted tiles still hold the fort of enduring beauty. Presently manufactured collections of tiles show the combination of contemporary and traditional concepts, combination of different shapes, patterns, sizes and colours enabling the designers to play with geometries and adding versatility to their diverse usages. STIR enlists some of the launches in the tile industry that are witnessing the innovations responding to sustainability, aesthetics and heritage.

New Town by Adam Nathaniel Furman

One of the latest launches of tiles by the British designer Adam Nathaniel Furman is a project showcasing the use of simple yet bold geometries inspired by the urban planning of Georgian Bath and Edinburgh’s New Town. The tiles are available in various colour combinations and have two versions, one with a smooth finish displaying the intricate application of the interconnected geometries and the other with a grooved version giving an essence of different levels, both depicting the city streets’ layout. Furman says “Whether deployed in rich, deep colourways that recall the most sensuous of tropical modernisms, or gleaming in simple white or a milky and diaphanous pearlescence, the geometry of New Town creates a surface that is at once classic, and modern, a delight of pure form”.

Le Ville by Casalgrande Padana

The Italian brand Casalgrande Padana brings back the trend of Venetian terrazzo with its collection ‘Le Ville’, one of the most renowned Italian creations. This collection is diverse in its applications on walls, floors, interiors or exteriors. A modern spin on its previous edition, the tile design still maintains its classic usage of potsherds, fine gravel and river pebbles. It shows how a combination of irregularly-sized fragments can be used to create a harmonious surface that feels like an organic movement within the patterns itself, which feels like they have not been put intentionally but have been formulated by nature.

Marmosaico by Studio KO and Carlo Dal Bianco

The Marmosaico is a mosaic tile collection introduced by a leading brand of glass mosaics, Bisazza, and designed in collaboration with Carlo Dal Bianco and Studio KO. Studio KO’s designs infuse the classical arches, mediaeval labyrinths and traditional cobblestone path patterns with the look of glass mosaics producing a whole new range of tiles. "In developing a collection with Bisazza, we were deeply inspired by Italy itself, where each region offers an extraordinary variety of marble with its many colours and styles. As architects and connoisseurs of understated elegance, we pay tribute to this treasured mineral through a reworking of modern domestic concepts that transforms the traditional aesthetic customs, uses, and often, functions of marble," explains Studio KO in an official statement.

Bianco's designs, on the other hand, recreated the architectural features and elements of traditional Milanese bourgeois home interiors. Each pattern had two colour combinations made using marble tesserae that were carefully hand-cut using traditional artistic techniques.

Wide&Style Mini Vol. 2 by ABK

The collection by ABK brings a combination of colours and new decorative ideas using the 60x120 cm size tile in Wide&Style Mini Vol. 2. This collection creates original ceramic wallpapers that are usable in even the smallest of spaces. The porcelain wall tile collection houses eight different patterns combining them with ten plain colours producing an abstract category of combinations with a handmade feel. The combinations smoothly fits in with the latest style trends and also creates a harmonious relationship with the existing range of porcelain floor tiles.

Musa+ by Fiandre Architectural Surfaces

Musa+ collection of tiles launched by Fiandre Architectural Surfaces is a range of ceramic tiles that houses very basic and simple shades to enable playing with the tiles and making combinations. Incubating diverse shapes like diamonds, hexagons, slabs, strips, boards, the collection through its neutral colours and shapes made a balance with all kinds of setting, public or private, industrial or retail.

Sustainable Tiles by Nada Debs x Kohler WasteLAB

Lebanese designer and artist Nada Debs launches a collection of tiles in collaboration with Kohler WasteLAB which speaks of the cultural richness of the hammam - a Turkish bath. “We have a great passion for exploring the nexus between design and environmental sustainability, a passion that is shared by Nada and translated into the hammam and the tiles themselves,” says Laura Kohler. The tile collection was showcased at Design Miami 2022 with the objective of reinventing the approach of using waste materials and injecting a manufacturing process that includes zero waste.

Bakst Capsule Collection by SICIS

SICIS being the biggest artistic mosaic laboratory in the world, is one of the mosaic tile brands that transforms its sensitivity towards art into eternal mosaic interpretations. Through its mosaic art collection, Bakst Capsule SICIS tries to deliver the message that art is a passion that goes beyond any place, religion, ideology, or difference. The brand has reproduced some of the most celebrated works by Bakst by combining ancient artisan techniques with the new pictorial language.

Surface materials by Cimento at Euroshop 2023

Cimento at Euroshop 2023, presents the latest proposal in surfaces and furnishing solutions. The production of this surface material uses more than 90% of mineral aggregates mixed with a cement binder and has multiple applications. Being light weight the material is easy to install and transport. Cimento’s main aim for producing such surface materials is to reduce waste to a minimum zero and to actively respond to issues relating to sustainability and climate change.

Text by Pratishtha Vashishth