Cementine: choose personality and a timeless style

A special interview for an important anniversary

They have been back in fashion for some years now, and we find them more and more frequently both in commercial environments – cafes, restaurants, trendy shops – and in homes: we are talking about a reinterpretation of traditional cement paste tiles, widespread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, known precisely as cement tiles. Originally, this product was characterised by very varied graphics, ranging from floral or optical patterns typical of the Liberty style, to geometric decorations and more classic Greek and border patterns. Using the most advanced production technologies, Ceramica Fioranese has created 8 porcelain stoneware collections that reproduce these artifacts of the past, revisited in a contemporary key thanks to the creativity of the Designer Silvia Stanzani. The result? A product that combines quality and design, the highest technical performance and love for a now-iconic style. This year we are celebrating ten years since the beginning of this collaboration: an anniversary that we want to celebrate by interviewing Silvia Stanzani, who from the beginning has, with Fioranese, devoted herself to this successful project.

LifeTiles: What an emotion! In 2023 you and Fioranese will celebrate 10 years of collaboration for the production of “Cementine”: what does this achievement mean for you?

Silvia Stanzani: It really seems impossible to me that 10 years have already passed… It’s still a pleasant surprise every time I see them around Italy and beyond, in the most unexpected places!

LifeTiles: Cementine is an iconic product for Fioranese: what is the secret behind the charm of these special collections?

Silvia Stanzani: I think we were able to perfectly grasp the trend of the moment and evolve in parallel with it. Right from the start, the feedback from the designers who used this product was enthusiastic, the unexpected freedom and creativity it offered them inspired us to continue. This exchange of energies is what gives this series its strength, and over the years it has been enriched and evolved with new offshoots and connections, almost a self-generating project that produces the energy and expressive charge that has led us, every year, to take a new path that is always different, yet always full of innovation.

LifeTiles: To design the different collections, were you inspired by different worlds, by particular ideas?

Silvia Stanzani: The idea came after a trip to the Tuna Fishery in Scopello. I started looking at majolica tiles with a different focus. In addition to their aesthetic beauty, which has always fascinated me, I began to see the dexterity that makes each tile unique, the technique used to apply the enamel, how the colour plays with the roughness of the base, the irregular shapes. A poetic blend of art and experience that adds an undeniable charm to these simple decorations. Hence the 2013 pilot project, Cementine 2, born to recreate this feeling.

LifeTiles: All the Cementine collections are extremely graphic and different from each other: but what is the common thread that binds them all?

Silvia Stanzani: The aim of creating something new on the theme of re-use, reinterpreting the classic patterns of the decorative history of ceramics, reworking them with contemporary techniques and graphics.

LifeTiles: Is there one particular collection of cement tiles that you are fond of? Maybe the first?

Silvia Stanzani: Yes… Cementine 20, the first, are still my favourites. They are a set of reinvented classic tiles whose maximum expression lies in the mix. Revisited with contemporary graphic and pictorial techniques with warm and dusty colours. The search for irregularity and diversity are the sign of a high technological and design quality, which means that each tile is different from the next while creating a decorated surface with high technical characteristics.
The world of Fioranese Cementine tiles is truly varied, a synthesis of creativity and imagination, where everyone can find the style that best represents them, perfect for customising both indoor and outdoor spaces. Visit www.cementinetiles.com to discover all the variants and be inspired for your next projects.