On the Tiles: FAP Ceramiche’s Roma collection

When in Rome, do as FAP Ceramiche does. The premium Italian ceramic-tile brand’s Roma collection – with its porcelain stoneware floor and wall tiling that faithfully replicates the optical texture and nobility of marble and stone – pays clear homage to the eternal beauty of Italian style, which is known and loved throughout the world.

The manufacturer, which has established itself since its founding in 1997 as one of the go-to companies for excellence in Italian tile production, has created with Roma a total design programme, which, through its variety of surfaces, sizes, colours and decorative motifs, provides the opportunity for architects, planners and other specifiers to truly shape bathrooms and other spaces in both contract and residential contexts.

The individuality that Roma offers with its six different shades of ‘marble’ – Grafite, Statuario, Calacatta, Imperiale, Petra and Travertino – is amplified by the wide range dimensions that the tiles come in. In terms of flooring, they are available in a generous number of sizes, from an impressive 75 x 150cm right down to a detailed 7.5 x 30cm. (The smaller elements are available in a matt finish, while the larger ones can, in addition to matt, be ordered with a brushed surface.) A hexagonal 21.6 x 25cm tile completes the Roman floor show.

On the walls, meanwhile, you can find tiles sized at both 25 x 75cm and 50 x 110cm – the latter a market first. Two different surface finishes – the reed-like, archly linear Filo, and the highly graphic, undulating Fold, which creates an intriguing play of light and shadow – make an additional level of individual specification possible. Such a diversity of product offering means FAP Ceramiche can meet the needs of a diverse and ever-changing market. And Roma is just one of 20 collections the manufacturer produces. No wonder then that FAP Ceramiche tiles have been deployed in a such breadth of high-end project types as hotels, restaurants, retail and wellness spaces, as well as in the private homes of discerning clients. ‘We are continually trying to touch base with living styles in order to keep all kinds of different characters happy,’ says Norberto Marzani, FAP’s marketing manager.

The Roma collection, with its marriage of the classical and the contemporary, dovetails neatly with FAP Ceramiche’s brand DNA. ‘Our balanced mix of the traditional and modern, of technical quality with creative touch,’ explains Marzani, ‘gives us the perfect space within which to innovate. We’re committed to the idea of the dream home as no longer a luxury attainable by the few, but a real opportunity within everyone’s reach.’

For FAP Ceramiche, ceramic tiles offer indisputable added value to architectural projects through their multiple functionality. Not only do they possess a strong aesthetic presence, they are also able to withstand significant physical stress without becoming damaged or deteriorating. ‘Moreover, they are hygienic,’ says Marzani . ‘New developments, that are slowly becoming less niche, include antibacterial, photocatalytic and photovoltaic functions.’

The manufacturer is also committed to managing its environmental impact and that of its products. As the company has grown up, so has its measurable ecological mindfulness. Marzani: ‘Our manufacturing processes and technological research have always gone hand in hand with a rigorous environmental policy that conditions our whole way of thinking, working and behaving towards the world around us.’ Big words, but far from hollow ones. All of FAP Ceramiche’s products carry the EU’s Ecolabel – a quality stamp that can only be applied to goods with a proven low environmental impact. Ecolabel evaluates the whole lifecycle of a product, from the quarrying of raw materials, through the production, distribution and use stages, to end-of-life disposal. The Roma collection may offer six colours, but every one of them is green.

And what would a collection that goes by the name of Roma be without mosaic tiles? As interior-architectural accents serving to define or divide space, or provide texture across a plane in its entirety, FAP Ceramiche’s variety of highly tactile mosaic products – in a range of tile sizes and colours for elegant flooring or wall surfaces – produce an effective shot of contemporary antiquity.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say. But with FAP Ceramiche’s premium white-body and porcelain-stoneware tiles, you can luckily afford to build a bit of the Eternal City into your own project.

© Architonic