Once again the Surface Design Show – the Islington-based specification showcase – provided plenty of grist for Tile Addict’s mill. The event’s main USPs – strong interior design and architectural audience, convenient location, restricted stand space, and eclectic product mix – thankfully remain intact. This means that any London-based specifier should really find the time each year for a 2 or 3 hours visit to the Business Design Centre. You can be pretty certain of seeing one or two surface surprises, and you will also find plenty of inspiration for upcoming projects, and future pitches.  

There were around 200 brands on display at SDS this year.  Some of the natural stone and ceramic/porcelain tiling sector’s big hitters were in evidence: Albion Stone, Burlington Stone, Clay International, Fila, Grestec, Ionic Stone, Marmox, Mirage, Saloni, and The Size/Neolith, plus a multi-brand Tile of Spain booth featuring Dune, Porcelanosa, Decocer, Adex, and Cristacer, among others.

For Tile Addict, the real impact this year was made by a few of the new kids on the block, and one of the oldest solid surfaces on the planet, terrazzo.  

Starting with the tried and tested, it was great to see InOpera and A. Andrews/Quiligotti flying the flag for real terrazzo. The stracciatella-effect tile trend has already outlasted most pundits predictions, but when genuine terrazzo expertise is on show, even the most hard-nosed specifier cannot help but be impressed.

The In Opera Group specialises in natural stone, marble, granite, porcelain, and man-made derivatives, such as agglomerates and terrazzo, manufactured in Italy, Portugal, and The Balkans. InOpera offers design, specification, and aftercare services; with façade, flooring and tiling installation through a network of contractors.

Pre-cast, and its bespoke in-situ, terrazzo capabilities were being promoted by A Andrews & Sons. It was offering SDS visitors a simple landscape A4 booklet. At a glance this showed how terrazzo is equally at home in period restoration projects, high end commercial applications, or modernist architectural masterpieces. It was heart-warming to see this wonderful surface option firmly on the front foot. 

But perhaps the most impressive terrazzo display at SDS was by Foresso: the timber terrazzo company. Foresso timber terrazzo is manufactured using waste wood sourced from trees felled in Britain and is hand-finished in Birmingham. The wood-chips are held together by a non-toxic, formaldehyde-free binder. This water-based formulation – effectively a VOC-free bio-based epoxy resin – was developed in-house. A mineral mix is added to add durability and help achieve a fine matt finish. This mineral mix comes from a variety of sources including cement and plaster waste from foundries.

Perfect for everyday surfaces such as tables, worktops, and furniture, Foresso uses timber that comes from city maintenance, local sawmills, or even building sites.  Planing waste and wood dust is used to add a gentle speckle and pleasant warmth; both key features of the timber terrazzo aesthetic. Wood chips vary in colour, tone, size, grain patterns, and include knots.  Species options include Oak, London Plane and Walnut: in many different colours. Chip density varies within each sheet and between sheets. The binder can be coloured using UK-sourced natural pigments, and finished using a food-safe hardwax oil. Read more about them here.

Tile Addict’s verdict is that Foresso timber terrazzo is very much a surface of the moment. Quite apart from the compelling sustainability angle, this is a very tactile material, and the combination of timber tones with on-trend binder pigments delivers an achingly fashionable finish. Being food safe, relatively simple to repair, and competitively priced, Foresso should prove equally at home in domestic or commercial applications.

Another timber-based surface to catch Tile Addict’s eye was Stratum Designs’ Modern Marquetry. This is another surface with a strong sustainability story, but is really a showcase for craft skill. The company’s founders, Ravi and Dan, offer customisable off-the-shelf furniture, innovative parquet flooring, and bespoke project solutions. Stratum offers a huge choice of marquetry patterns, with different colour palettes, material mixes, forms, and finishes, all using recycled plastics and CDs, and materials from commercial waste streams. 5% of profits are diverted to tree planting, and the company actively promotes the ideals of a circular economy.  But the real bonus for would-be specifiers is that Stratum’s modern marquetry is utterly beautiful and beguiling. The crisp patterns and delicate inlays have echoes of sci-fi futurism: this is the kind of surface finish that Rick Deckard would have enjoyed in Blade Runner.

Stratum’s speciality lies in a manufacturing technique that produces a new composite material from various waste surfaces.  By manipulating a range of qualities such as colour, density, texture and composition, it is constructed to reflect a client’s vision. Stratum is currently exploring the notion of modular panels with interchangeable decorative components that can form larger structures that describe a space.

Post-grad design students always feature at SDS and year-on-year provide many of the show’s highlights.  This year was no exception. Tile Addict was particularly drawn to two: Beetware, and ReCinder.

Beetware – a final thesis project by Chloe Mountain from Central Saint Martins – is a versatile and biodegradable material formed using British ceramic and sugar production waste.  Mountain – a ceramicist and granddaughter of a sugar beet machinery pioneer –  was able to identify the value in waste ceramics and sugar beet pulp destined for landfill.  With a similar consistency to raw grogged clay, Beetware consists of varying sized ceramic sherds, all of which are malleable and sculpturally transformative. Prematurely flexible, it can be moulded and pressure cast, with smaller sherds accurately defining details. Once cured, Beetware is said to be hardwearing and durable.

This project may have some way to travel before it its commercially viable, but this is surely a path worth travelling.

ReCinder is the brainchild of Rosy Napper; a ceramic material researcher interested in the intersection of science and design, and specialising in the sustainable development of waste-based ceramics. Napper uses unwanted and unused resources to replace environmentally damaging ones. ReCinder is an 100% recycled material made from discarded ceramic and waste ash that has been diverted from landfill. The material is extremely versatile, suitable for furniture, tiling, and tableware. However, most importantly, it can be used for lighting due to its translucent quality. ReCinder is currently one of the only 100% recycled ceramic materials on the market capable of translucency. 

As Tile Addict can testify, developing a commercially sustainable translucent ceramic body has long been one of the preoccupations of R&D departments in the tiling sector. Rosy Napper, on the evidence at SDS, has cracked it, albeit in a different material. This attribute makes ReCinder a potentially valuable material: one well worth further exploration.

There may have been only one new artisanal tile producer at SDS; but Trix Newham was worth the trip to Islington on her own. Exhibiting as Lux Pottery, Newham started out producing ceramic lamp bases and decorative wall plaques, but has lately detoured into tile production. And this has proved very productive indeed.  Her tiles have a pop art exuberance reminiscent of Lubna Chowdhary, and a mastery of colour composition that immediately brought to mind the master of the craft: Kenneth Clark. Tile Addict does not make such comparisons lightly, as it holds both Clark and Chowdhary in the highest regard. 

Using hand-painted abstract motifs, Newham marries aestheticism, functionality, and originality, to create unusual shapes and textures. It is fair to say that Newham only had a few tile samples on display at SDS, and there is little digital footprint of her tiles online. However, these few samples were enough to convince Tile Addict that Trix Newham is a rare talent, and Lux Pottery a name to follow in the future.  

Using a distinctive ochre biscuit, powerful geometry including simple circles and a bold palette of deep oranges and rich earth tones, Newham’s work will be equally at home in House and Garden, Wallpaper, or On Office.

Finally, a word about Mark Williams and Tile Around Town: design consultants based in Banbury, Oxfordshire.  Williams is a fellow title addict. Formerly Sales & Creative Director at Capitol, Parkside, and Domus – three of the UK’s foremost specification distributors – Williams has recently started to paddle his own canoe as Tile Around Town. Basically this is a business that will channel Williams’ vast ceramic knowledge, and creative flair, into bespoke projects for private and commercial clients.

He has already completed the first commissions. At Honey & Co, the design approach aimed to create a space that was “simple” and “uncluttered” while also representing the soul of the Honey & Co brand. Selecting a few key finishes which echoed the artisanal nature of H&C’s food was at the core of the design. The tiles selected, hand-made in Spain by Maora Ceramic and installed by Concorde BGW Group, should provide a route map for Williams’ collaboration with Maora Ceramic going forward.

This company typifies the best of Spain’s artisanal tile studios. Maora Ceramic work with natural clay using age-old techniques to create carefully-crafted products. The company’s studio-workshop is a creative space in which a team of craftsmen combine age-old techniques with contemporary aesthetics in order to create a new dimension in tiles. 

Maora is proud of the company’s past collaborations with architects and designers. This process starts with the production of designs on paper, either by hand or using a computer. In house decorators then transfer those designs onto the tiles. The glaze is then applied, transforming the tiles into incredible pieces of traditional ceramic with intense and vibrant colours.

At SDS, this capability was demonstrated by an elongated triangular tile, a simple 3D shape with one plain and one glazed face. With a strong artisan feel, subtle imperfections, a bold geometric form, and powerful presence, this piece typifies the kind of impact that Tile Around Town and Maora Ceramic aim to have on UK projects going forward.

A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, February 2024.