The modern naturality of Casalgrande Padana surfaces

The Italian villages are back. Not that they ever left, quite the contrary. But a major trend in recent years - amplified even more by the pandemic and the development of smart working – is the movement of people, attention and economies from large cities to smaller towns: the so-called inland areas. In a recent editorial in Domus, Fulvio Irace writes: “Inland Italy, that string of small towns that form the vertebrae of a territorial system that has its backbone in the country’s landforms, points the way to an inevitable rethinking to be faced with determined awareness of its complexity.” The architect, historian and academic invites us to "care for the ordinary" and reinterpret the vast cultural and material heritage of our country with contemporary tools. With its new collections of porcelain stoneware surfaces, Nature and Petra, Casalgrande Padana also performs a work of heritage innovation: the Made in Italy company reinterprets typical materials of the Italian building tradition, such as earth and stone, in a contemporary way, with durable and versatile products.

Nature is a collection of surfaces that recalls the warmth and materiality of the earth. The six different shades (Argilla, Calce, Creta, Lava, Sabbia and Terra) have a rustic style and feature great versatility, thanks also to the six different sizes and the natural and lapped (in the new Silk version) surfaces for indoors and non-slip surfaces for outdoors. With their character, the porcelain stoneware slabs of the Nature series give a refined and contemporary touch to environments with a rustic, Provencal or shabby chic feel. Nature surfaces can be up to 20 mm thick, allowing outdoor installation either with adhesive on screed or dry directly on sand, gravel or grassy ground. Nature surfaces allow the design of indoor and outdoor environments in perfect continuity, with a perfect colour match or with pleasant tonal contrasts.

The Petra collection combines the imperfect beauty of quartzite with the mechanical performance and versatility of porcelain stoneware. The surfaces feature delicate earthy and sandy tones, or shades of grey, defining a simple, natural look that is an ode to slowness, conviviality and rural life. Their distinctive feature is the small imperfections and irregularities that give the surface an authentic, handcrafted look. The six Petra surfaces (Antracite, Bianca, Grigia, Oro, Perla and Sabbia) are available in five sizes: from the small 20x20 cm and 20x40 cm to the classic 30x60 cm and 60x60 cm, and the large 60x120 cm size. The porcelain stoneware surfaces in the collection are suitable for a variety of uses: indoors and outdoors, floors and walls, for total look solutions or mix and match.

Rural culture, unique construction solutions and craftsmanship are the characteristics common to a great deal of architecture throughout Italy: country cottages, barns and farms, but also residences in villages and small historic centres. The new collections of stoneware surfaces are designed to interact with these contexts, which are no longer marginal and are becoming the new driving force of Made in Italy.