Ceramics of Italy Awards Projects Showcasing Inventive Designs with Italian Tile

After an extraordinary year that has proven incredibly challenging for the design community at large, Confindustria Ceramica (the Italian Association of Ceramics) and the Italian Trade Agency are more proud than ever to announce the winners of the 2021 Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition, which annually honors North American architects and designers who use Italian ceramic and porcelain tile in creative ways. The international jury reviewed a number of impressive submissions from designers, architects and students across the U.S. and Canada, ultimately picking a record-breaking seven winners and two honorable mentions. The projects span four built categories - Commercial, Institutional, Multi-Family Residential, and Single-Family Residential and one student category.

Among this year’s winning projects are: an expansive, tile-clad amenity club designed by Rockwell Group within a luxury apartment complex in Manhattan; Taller KEN’s biophilic single-family home in Costa Rica with natural-looking ceramic surfaces throughout; an unforgettable pool deck by Post Brothers with unique sculptural elements clad in porcelain; and two imaginative renderings created by students at Pratt Institute that make extensive use of Italian tile. This year, the jury also selected two beautiful higher-education buildings as winning projects in the Institutional category, both designed by Gow Hastings Architects, recognizing their clever use of Italian ceramic tile as a wayfinding element. These projects, along with the honorable mentions, showcase many recent innovations from Italian manufacturers including large-format slabs and gauged porcelain tile panels, hyper-realistic surface designs and textures, and more.