Salt of the Earth interiors

On my first ever trip to Italy I slept on a marble floor. I was visiting an old schoolfriend who had the good fortune to be spending a term of her History of Art degree in the home town of Canaletto, Titian and Tintoretto. Her Venetian lodgings were a one-room apartment in a palazzo with little provision for guests but generously proportioned, acceptably furnished and most memorably featuring an abundance of polished mineral surfaces. Though not overly-grand, it was a cut above most student accommodation and gave me my first experience of residing in the enveloping calm of an interior swathed in stone. Ascending the steps of Villa Necchi or any one of Milan’s palatial residences brings back that same feeling. It’s something historic Italy does expertly.

More decades than I care to mention later, and the contemporary design world is mining the emotional value of some of the more exciting strata buried far beneath our feet.  Not only are marbles and fine granites shorthand for luxury, but the colours, flecks and veins of their cut surfaces are now sought after for their biophilic credentials. Like the textures, fractal patterns and nuanced hues of wood, grasses and clays, stone’s natural characteristics have the power to sow serenity into a space. What’s different today is that there is an alternative to quarrying rare resources to introduce stone’s emotive qualities to interiors and outdoor rooms; creative ceramics companies such as Italy’s Casalgrande Padana are reproducing them in porcelain stoneware tiles.

Casalgrande Padana has explored stone-finishes in its Amazzonia and Chalon collections among others, and this year is adding a range of porcelain tiles that take their inspiration from rock salt crystallisations. Making up the Supreme collection, they sustainably replicate the textures, colours and lustre of specific examples of the sedimentary rocks, while giving them hard-wearing, non-slip functionality that increases their architectural value. ‘This type of stone, characterised by important but at the same time nuanced and calibrated veining, was missing from our collections,’ says Cesare Brizzi Casalgrande Padana’s resident architect.

Supreme’s refined palette comes in four calming colours – Grey, Dark, Sand and Taupe. It takes cues for its latticed lines, desaturated hues and delicate transparencies from specific crystalline geologies such as Fleur de Sel from the Algarve in Portugal, Grey Brittany Salt and the inky Kala Namak South Asian salt rock. They are ideal for instilling spa-like tranquility into interior surfaces, and work equally well aesthetically and functionally outdoors too, flexing to fit the fashion for seamless transitions across thresholds onto patios and terraces.

The tiles are also made in such a way as to take functionality far beyond architectural cladding; they have the potential to form furniture and petitions, sliding doors, worktops, cabinetry and garden seating. ‘The technical characteristics of the ceramic material, together with the low thickness and size of the slabs, have extended its use to the production of artefacts such as tables, kitchens, sinks, doors for furniture,’ Brizzi elaborates. ‘It allows the architect and designer to shape an atmosphere by using the same colour to cover the floor, a wall and a piece of furniture, shelves etc. The Supreme slabs have a pronounced personality; I would use them in colour continuity to create a "total look".’

The versatility of the rock salt collection makes it possible to create a unique, refined and biophilic interior inexpensively. Made from natural raw materials, the slabs are designed to be non-absorbent, fire-resistant, non-allergenic and antibacterial. They withstand wear from temperature fluctuations and seawater, and by adding in Bios Ceramics technology (optional), they are self-cleaning.

The Supreme collection provides all the stately presence and soothing aura of natural stone which that first visit to Venice impressed upon this wide-eyed young traveller, but adds in the possibility of 21st century clean lines and convenience. What’s not to like.

© Architonic

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