The importance of design in the use of Italian ceramic tiles | by Andrea Serri

Once upon a time, there were Italian ceramic tiles with their well-known dimensional, aesthetic and technical characteristics. This was a world in which Italy enjoyed an undisputed leadership position in terms of both global volumes and the presence of Italian technology and service companies. However, as ceramic technology was exported worldwide, Italy’s tile industry found itself facing a tough challenge to its leadership.

Today, while maintaining our capabilities in the field of ceramic tiles and innovation – after all Italy is still the cradle of innovation for modern industrial ceramic technologies and products – the Italian ceramic industry has gone one step further, casting its leadership in new terms: that of using Italian ceramics in the most prestigious architectural projects worldwide. It is clear that ceramic tiles and panels remain the basic building blocks of large public and private installations, but the real difference between Italy and its competitors today is that only Italy has the capability to complete the most prestigious large-scale architectural projects the world over, whether in private apartments, shopping centres, retail outlets, public spaces or city centres.

This leadership is evident in the Projects Gallery on our website, which features more than 800 projects completed in recent years by almost 100 Italian companies. This extraordinary repertoire of excellence, covering all possible applications, showcases the versatility of Italian design as it relates to stylistic fashions, lending a strong, distinctive identity to each individual project. This vast collection of projects is today supplemented by the reference books of Italian ceramic companies, professional documents which can be found in the Projects section of the site. These two sections provide valuable information and serve as a source of inspiration for new projects, which we look forward to receiving from our members for publication.

March 2018