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With over 95 thousand visitors, almost half of whom from outside Italy, Cersaie 2024 reaffirmed its status as the premier trade event in its sector internationally. From September 23–27, the pavilions of BolognaFiere hosted the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings, attracting thousands of visitors and professionals from around the world.
Now up to its 41st edition, this year’s Cersaie focused on the concept of architectural space, exploring its complexities from the residential dimension through to public spaces and the contract market.
In this article, we look at the products that, according to THE PLAN, best highlight the excellence being achieved by Italy’s ceramic industry.
Atlas Concorde drew its inspiration from the Cersaie 2024 theme, “Uniqueness Has a Place,” inviting visitors to step inside an experience that combined hospitality, elegance, and modernity. And uniqueness was a hallmark of the firm’s booth, which offered an immersive journey through its five new collections: Log, Log Cansei, Boost Expression, Marvel Diva, and Boost Icor. At the center of the space was a green lung that connected the different collections, with each delimited by its outdoor applications. Visible from the outside the booth, the green space included the same warm, natural shades that brought the architecture and furnishings to life.
Iris Ceramica Group developed its concept for Cersaie 2024 from the idea of multiple voices harmonizing to create a single piece of music. It then applied the metaphor on different levels. The instruments of this orchestra are the people who make the group so unique as well as the innovative technologies they use to create ceramic products. The booth comprised four sound rooms, each dedicated to a particular technological innovation. The room dedicated to the new Moonlight technology, unveiled at Cersaie 2024, immersed visitors in a symphony of light complete with backlit planets. Moonlight harnesses the ability of ceramics to diffuse light uniformly, with the lights apparently emerging from the body of the ceramic slab itself thanks to its translucence.
At this year’s International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings, Ceramica Sant’Agostino explored the themes of continuity, rebirth, and rediscovery as they relate to the past but also with one eye on the future. Among its new collections, Novart is a perfect combination of the rationalism of concrete and the fragmented, decorative nature of mosaic. Iro draws its inspiration from the curving natural shapes of plaster in a contemporary and fresh wall effect. Windstone, a new stone effect, recalls a wind that caresses and darkens surfaces, and gives the environment an enveloping visual quiet. Bit, a terracotta-effect brick format with the firm’s Mat finish, reinterprets a well-known aesthetic in a fresh, elegant version. A new addition to its marble-inspired line is Glow, which in turn is inspired by the finest Venetian terrazzo while reinterpreting its neutral colors. Invictus Cross completes the Invictus collection by offering transverse veining in the same color range. As the name suggests, Gracewood brings a wood texture to interiors, while the Extra collection has grown with the addition of three new tones.
Mapei showcased a number of innovative products designed to respond to the needs of today’s construction industry, with sustainability a key feature of all of them. The standouts were the complete zero1 systems, which fully offset CO2 emissions and are ideal for crafting a home’s key spaces. They include a shower system, for waterproofing and installing ceramic tiles in bathrooms and wet areas; a terrace system, for waterproofing and laying ceramics on newly built balconies and terraces; a living room system, for installing ceramic tiles over cracked existing floors using a decoupling and anti-fracture membrane, and a system for laying ceramic tiles on outdoor paths. With a range of products designed to improve the quality of living spaces, and with a strong focus on durability and reducing environmental impact, Mapei’s booth was a meeting point for industry professionals.
Cerdisa’s new Glomera collection is a bold and contemporary tribute to materials like concrete and earth that reinterprets them in a versatile, innovative design. This collection stands out for its hard-wearing, functional surfaces embellished with abstract and pop patterns that give life to a new graphic universe. It’s available in six shades, including the neutral Frost, Dust, Tan, and Graphite tones, and the more dynamic and assertive Jade and Sienna. With its innovative finishes and many possible combinations, Glomera provides functional and beautiful looks for both residential and commercial applications.
RAK Ceramics specializes in ceramic and porcelain stoneware floor and wall tiles, tableware, sanitaryware, and faucets. At the event, the firm showcased some exceptionally creative products designed as part of a versatile mix-and-match approach that invites people to combine different materials. Reflecting this concept, Grey Antique is a particularly interesting new product: a slab composed of a marble and stone composite from which individual natural elements have been extracted to create the Moonstone, Greystone, and Crystal White collections. Evoking the natural beauty of geological formations, these surfaces are ideal for walls, countertops, and floors in both residential and busy retail settings.
Likewise, the FlakeSet technology involves the homogenous integration of flakes of stone directly into ceramic slabs, as in the new Flake Stone collection. The result is a material with a natural look that’s ideal for worktops and tiles with visible edges.
Inspired by a harmony between the beauty of nature and artistic expression, Marca Corona’s Joy of Nature line creates an intriguing dialogue between raw materials and the environment. This approach has produced a range of innovative design ideas for contemporary architecture that fully engage the senses – and not just sight, but also touch, making it possible to create experiences that enrich any living or retail space.
The products on display at Cersaie drew their inspiration from raw earth, the effects of water, the interplay of light and shade, and the chromatic vivacity of the pigments we see every day in nature. The Arialuce collection, for example, creates a dialogue between terracotta and porcelain stoneware based on their common origins: clay. With a selection of shapes and sizes that create fascinating patterns for decorative screens, but can also be used as supports or finishes, Arialuce forms a discreet yet defining presence.
14oraitaliana: unconventional creativity
14oraitaliana, an ABK Group brand, unveiled Alterego at Cersaie 2024, a collection that explores the theme of color through an experimental and unconventional lens. This collection includes ten fashion shades inspired by the sensations of hand-applied resins. It offers a wide range of sizes for creating innovative color combinations and tile patterns. Alterego combines soft and satin colors with decorative patterns, as well as glossy finishes with three-dimensional effects. With these new geometries, 14oraitaliana is asserting its unique approach to ceramicware, balancing creativity, technology, and innovation in the design of walls and floors.
For over fifty years, Italian firm Antique Mirror has been researching and creating innovative glass products. Its experience, technical skill, and creativity have produced an incredibly wide range of options in silvered and decorative flat glass. One of its flagship products is Anima Collection, a uniquely elegant artwork created using a 3D structure on which mirrors are assembled by hand with painstaking precision. The collection comprises modular panels in three fixed sizes, suitable for both wall and ceiling installation.
Specializing in the production of high-quality ceramics and porcelain stoneware with innovative designs, Aparici Ceramics has become a major exporter, operating in over 140 countries, while maintaining the values and legacy of its founder. This year, Aparici Ceramics unveiled nine new collections at BolognaFiere that combine different materials, including metal, terracotta, porcelain, and wood, to bring elegance and wellbeing to any space.
To mark its 150th anniversary, Appiani, a Gruppo Bardelli brand, launched Eden, a collection that combines aesthetic research with hi-tech content. The range is the result of reinterpreting the hexagon in ceramic mosaics on a modern porcelain stoneware support and then combining the result with carefully balanced chromatic combinations. It draws its inspiration from the floor of Teatro Eden in Treviso, inaugurated January 5, 1911. Today a symbol of Liberty-style architecture, the theater was part of an ambitious project by Graziano Appiani, who founded Ceramica Appiani in 1873.
Available in 18 colors, the tiles are the product of single firing, a process that makes it possible to produce ceramicware with dry-pressed ceramic powders. Firing at high temperatures gives the product extraordinary strength, durability, and frost resistance, making it ideal for floor and wall applications, both indoors and outdoors.
Quarella, an Italian leader in marble and processed stone, came to Cersaie 2024 to unveil its Opera, Duet, and Le Noir collections, all of which attracted the attention of local and international attendees for their beauty and sustainability. An unusual feature of the collections is that they are all produced using waste marble from Italian quarries. The dynamic nature of the world of design has been a greenlight for Quarella to use its new marble collections to experiment with intense and fashion colors, all of which reflect the stone’s enormous potential for customization.
Refin unveiled its new Etherea, Eik, Grayn, and Upside collections. Each is the result of an experimental approach to interpreting minerals and timber in tiles. With Upside, Refin has reinvented an design originally by Massimiliano Adami giving it a completely new look. The identifying element of the collection is its squared geometric pattern, originally derived from the structure on the back of the tiles and today created through a grid of raised lines that intersect to recreate the same decorative motif. Compared to the original product, this new version has enlarged the continuous grid idea, evolving the mosaic through a contemporary lens by expanding and enhancing the geometries of the decoration. In combination with the collection’s color palette, this makes Upside a tile that surprises with its aesthetic and visual power.
In collaboration with CuoreCarpenito, Ceramiche Settecento is exploring the transformation of iconic sculptural forms into a two-dimensional decoration based on Claudia Carpenito’s distinctive alphabet: the imperfect semicircle, the oblique line, and an element inspired by the handles of Messapia, ancient vases from Itay’s eastern Puglia region. This part of Italy is a true cultural crossroads, and the name of the new collection, Koinè, means the mix of the alphabets and symbols of an ancient language that happened there. The design reduces this idea to its barest essentials in products that form part of your everyday life.
Making memories together reflects the Sichenia philosophy of the home being much more than a physical place, but the setting in which the most significant moments of our lives take place. Every detail of its Sichenia Home line is designed to enrich daily living, transforming every room into a welcoming and emotionally charged space with a story to tell.
Supergres has expanded its catalog with two stone-effect collections, Whisper and Moonlit; a metal-effect collection called Irony; wood-effect floor tiles dubbed 4Ever; and the Colovers+ color project. The company offers a broad range of products and styles, all designed to create unique environments that reflect the personality of the people who live in them. From glamorous to classic, from romantic and elegant to designer looks, all the lines stand out for their colors, harmony, and attention to detail.
>>> Discover the best of bathroom furnishings at Cersaie 2024.
Individual photo credits are included in each gallery image
