Silvia Stanzani: i love the cementine tiles, a perfect mix of creativity and innovation

Interview with the designer of the Ceramica Fioranese Cementine collections

Some thoughts with the designer Silvia Stanzani, creator of the iconic Cementine collections: her collaboration with Ceramica Fioranese began in 2013, the fruit of a simple and technologically innovative project as she, herself, here explains.

LT: The Cementines is a project that comes from the past but which, at the same time, is very contemporary. What makes them so modern?

Silvia Stanzani: At the beginning there was the intention to create something new on the theme of re-use, interpreting the classic motifs from the history of ceramics, reinterpreting them with contemporary techniques and graphics. Then, with the introduction of digital technology, we managed to obtain a new surface which has an antiquated look but also an unexpected contemporary spirit perfectly integrated with the support. They are a perfect mix of creativity and technology, the basis for every successful product.
The Cementine_20 were created in 2013; they were the first, but perhaps also the ones with the most powerful innovative content. They are revised classic modules in the Sicilian tradition, simplifying the forms and playing with improbable chromatic backgrounds, re-evoking the charm of hand-made tiles. In this way each module is unique; there’s the colour interaction with the roughness of the support, the irregularity of the forms, a poetic combination of art and antique which lends these simple decorations an undeniable charm, making them modern and unique.

LT: Are the Cementine to all intents and purposes an element of furnishing and design?

Silvia Stanzani: I really think so. They are veritable Contemporary Patterns. They manage to provide emotion and aesthetic quality when inserted into a context, fitting in with multiple furnishing solutions.

LT: What are the most suitable environments for using the Cementine?

Silvia Stanzani: In actual fact it’s a very flexible material. It was immediately used outside of conventional applications, in which tiles are used in the bathroom and kitchen. Its expressivity triggered the creativity of interior designers, who have used them for completely new solutions and, for this reason we dedicated a section of the catalogue, DECOREVOLUTION, specifically to them and published during Cersaie’17 (https://www.fioranese.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/FIORANESE-Cementine-Decorevolution.pdf). This was precisely to show all the expressive possibilities and the innovative scope of these collections, which can cover not only walls and floors, but also stairs, tables, counters and external coverings, as far as arriving at furniture made in partnership with the bathroom furnishing company, Archeda.

LT: What inspired you to redesign these particular tiles?

Silvia Stanzani: The idea came after a trip to Tonnara di Scopello, Sicily. I began to look at the majolicas with a different focus. Besides the aesthetic beauty, which has always fascinated me, I started to see the manual input that makes every module unique, the technique with which the glaze is applied, the way in which the colour interacts with the roughness of the support, the irregularity of the forms. It was a poetic combination of art and antiquity that lends an undeniable charm to these simple decorations. This was the starting point for the pilot project in 2013. To recreate the same sensation.

LT: What is your favourite among all the Cementine collections?

Silvia Stanzani: Perhaps the Cementine_20, the first and still the most innovative. They’re a combination of classic and reinvented modules, revised with contemporary techniques and designs with warm and dusty colours, that find their maximum expression in this mix. The deliberate search for irregularity and diversity is a sign of high-level technological and design quality, which allows for the uniqueness of every single tile and the creation of a decorated surface with remarkable technical characteristics.

LT: Which environment is best suited to Cementine_Black&White?

Silvia Stanzani: In this series the forms are simpler and more linear, with defined contours. Colour is absent. The tones are extreme: white, black and grey, contaminated by the dust of the material. I could see them particularly suited to contexts with a minimal but warm and intimate feel, that find a balance in the perfect and complete combination of opposites.

Discover all the collections on www.cementinetiles.com
To find out more about the designer, Silvia Stanzani www.silviastanzani.com