An architectural take on surface design: Zaha Hadid Architects x Atlas Concorde

In his 1920 essay, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, Freud described how young children often gain pleasure from repetition. Unlike adults, who quickly tire of old jokes, kids often beseech their parents, or indeed favourite aunt or uncle, to repeat a silly gesture or impression with the words ‘Again! Again!’, the rising level of giddy amusement seemingly knowing no end.

When we think of pattern, what we are imagining is a graphic motif or scheme that repeats. If it didn’t, it would simply be a singular image. Yet, while there’s enjoyment to be had from beholding, from experiencing a pattern – in its predictability, maybe – there’s also a level of safety that might be said to tip over, ever so slightly, into the realm of (dare I say it) the boring.

It comes, perhaps, as little surprise that Italian ceramic-tile specialist Atlas Concorde, when looking for a partner to create a new, visually dynamic, pattern-driven surface design, approached Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). The manufacturer – known for its porcelain floor and wall slabs that displace the need for quarried stone by faithfully replicating its look and feel – was determined to achieve a result that was less decorative and more architectural; so the visionary office, which is credited with having established a completely new, radical language in building design, was an obvious choice.

Look at almost any ZHA architecture project and you’ll see two things. The avoidance of serial repetition and, at the same time, the absence of disparate elements. And this is precisely what the award-winning firm has developed for Atlas Concorde.

Called ‘Diamond’ and sitting within the brand’s Marvel Meraviglia collection, the system features an elaborate, optically active pattern, whose intricateness belies its ease of installation. Comprising just three individual tile forms, its composition deploys repetition but, critically, with an element of difference within it as it plays out.

‘The team was excited to create something genuinely new,’ explains Associate Director Paolo Zilli, ‘to create a geometry in transition as it moves from hexagon to cube and back again. It’s revolutionary, even though, ultimately, it’s a fixed, two-dimensional pattern. What we’ve demonstrated with “Diamond” is how pattern doesn’t have to involve sameness. It can be something more.’

That ‘more’ is a remarkable, three-dimensional graphic effect, which, when applied to walls or floors of an interior space, actively helps shape it – or, as Zilli puts it: ‘We wanted a design that gives an answer to a space, that reacts to it, rather than serving just as a decoration of it. It can actually lead to a new spatial design without a complete redesign of the existing spatial system.’

If you’re thinking that ‘Diamond’ must take forever and a day to install, then know this: when specifying it, the product is preassembled in the factory and arrives on-site in a series of easy-to-configure kits. Each of these, in turn, comprises a small number of 40 x 40-centimetre, mesh mats onto which the individual tiles have already been fixed in position, so everything within the overall scheme is precisely where it should be. ‘It’s like a jigsaw,’ says Zilli, meaning you can’t go wrong. ‘Developing something that was effective in terms of logistics and installation was a central part of the brief.’

The literal flexibility of the product means it can be applied to curved surfaces, as well as making it more of a compelling architectural device for planners. ‘“Diamond” can be used, of course, on floors and walls, but doesn’t necessarily have to be interrupted,’ suggests Zilli. ‘It can work as a continuous surface, rising from the floor up onto the walls, which is particularly interesting because the eye perceives space through corners – the corners at floor or at ceiling level. Bars, restaurants, conference venues, as a form of wayfinding, directing guests from one space into another… It has a lot of potential.’

High-carat stuff, indeed.

Credits Diamond Decor: Copyright Zaha Hadid Limited 2023, manufactured by Ceramiche Atlas Concorde under license from Zaha Hadid Limited.

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