A book exploring the first 5 years of the Ceramics and Design competition | by Andrea Serri

The 160-page publication entitled “Ceramics and design. The Italian ceramic industry architecture competition 2012-2016” presents the 33 winning projects chosen from more than 500 submissions by Italian architecture firms that used Italian ceramic tiles between 2012 and 2016. The book, produced with the contribution of the Italian Trade Agency ITA, was officially presented on 4 July 2017 in Palermo during the award ceremony for the sixth edition of the Ceramics and Design competition, following a conference on ceramic tiles and architecture promoted by Ceramics of Italy in cooperation with the Order of Architects of Palermo, Amici dei Musei Siciliani and ProViaggiArchitettura.

 Published by Edi.Cer. SpA, the book presents the winning projects from the first five editions of the competition. But at the same time it serves as a kind of white paper promoting dialogue between architecture and materials, in this case Italian ceramic tile, a material that has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years in terms of both its structural and construction characteristics and its ability to interpret current trends.

The book is divided into a number of sections. Following the prefaces by Confindustria Ceramica Chairman Vittorio Borelli and Chairman of ITA Michele Scannavini and the introduction by Aldo Colonetti and Cristina Faedi, curators of both the competition and the book, the three jury members – Sebastiano Brandolini, Michele Capuani and Cino Zucchi – discuss the criteria they followed in choosing the winning projects. This provides a unique insight into the world of design with all its strengths and characteristics, making the publication a useful tool for designers to find out more about trends in the use of ceramic tile in architecture.

 The 33 winning projects (15 winners, 17 mentions and 1 award) are divided into the 3 categories Residential, Commercial and Institutional. At the end of the book there is an alphabetical list of all competition entrants, a collection of more than 500 Italian architecture firms who chose to use Italian ceramic tile in their projects.