The 39th edition of Cersaie 2022, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings, has just come to an end after a packed five-day calendar at the Bologna Exhibition Centre from 26 to 30 September. With 91,296 registered visitors, including 44,215 foreign operators, the event counted a 50% growth compared to the 2021 edition, approaching the 112,340 admissions of 2019, before the pandemic period.
It is an exhibition with an international scope that confirms, this year more than ever, the perfect partnership between the exhibition centre and the city. The Cersaie Bologna duo, in fact, ties the historic centre to the belt of the nearby urban suburbs, building a bridge of continuous cross-references between what happens inside and outside the exhibition centre. “In this historical context of great difficulty for companies and families, Cersaie showcases the ingenuity and industriousness, beauty, culture, art and sustainability of a sector at the forefront of our manufacturing,” introduced Gianpiero Calzolari, President of BolognaFiere, the 39th edition of the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings.
What we saw at Cersaie 2022
The 39th edition of the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings has come to its conclusion. Here we review the key moments.
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- La redazione di Domus
- 10 October 2022
For the occasion, the fifteen pavilions of the Bologna Exhibition Centre were fully occupied (140,000 square metres of total surface area) by 624 companies, including 354 from the ceramic tile sector, 88 from the bathroom furnishings sector, and 183 from the sectors of installation, raw materials, new surfaces, and service activities. The international connotation of the exhibition is also confirmed by the presence of 237 foreign exhibitors, corresponding to 38% of the total, and by the 26 countries represented.
With an increasingly rich programme, the Cersaie trade fair proceeded throughout the week to the rhythm of talks and appointments. Among the rendezvous not to be missed, the one on Tuesday 27 September, “The sustainable beauty of recovery”, presents the Casa Asilo project with Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo, Giovanni Cappelletti talks about Palazzo Butera in Palermo, or again Mario Botta described the experience of a church built in Ukraine with “Building Peace”. An important confirmation of the exhibition, on its tenth birthday together with “Cersaie Disegna La Tua Casa”, was the “Città della Posa” (City of Laying) occupying an area of over 400 square metres in Hall 32, where during the five days of the event there were demonstrations of laying large slabs and workshops. Cersaie Upstairs, on the other hand, was a pedestrian pathway on the first floor linking the historic pavilions with the newly built ones.
The appointment with the Café della Stampa di Domus was, instead, on Wednesday 28, involving for the occasion one of the leading experts in the field of sustainability: architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri, former editor of the magazine in 2004. The special conversation between him and Simona Bordone will focus on the theme “Green Obsession” to which Boeri himself has dedicated his latest book (2021, Actar Publishers).
“Ceramic tile continues to increase its share on international markets thanks to the intrinsic characteristics of the product, such as healthiness, hygiene and durability,” concludes Giovanni Savorani. “The commitment to the sustainability of Italian ceramics was the leitmotif of the entire event and was also concretely reflected in the meeting held at the fair with regional and territorial institutions to monitor the progress and results of the district's voluntary agreement on limiting emissions”.
Browse the gallery to discover the ceramic industry novelties on offer during the five-day event.
Acquabella occupied more than 200 square meters of space for the set-up to present the new Underwater collection, a tribute to the power of water. Delia, for example, is a semi-totem with a deep and capacious basin with integrated drain, which catches the eye thanks to the special pleated relief on the lower part of the basin.
Arbi Arredobagno presents the new Luxor, Sky Texture and Code Riga collections,which are distinguished by the balance between aesthetics and functionality, guaranteed by the high quality of the materials and the design of excellence totally made in Italy.
Seletti collaborated instead with Ceramica Bardelli: the result is the capsule collection Tiles (R)evolution, which consists of floor and wall surfaces with proposals with a strong aesthetic impact designed for the home, contract and hotellerie. The collection consists of five lines - Distortion, Diamond, Black&White, Elements 1 - Clouds and Elements 2 - Water - that give rise to patterns with a contemporary soul with which to create immersive and surprising environments.
Ceramica Francesco De Maio draws inspiration from one of the most important architectural symbols of the Amalfi Coast: the Cathedral of Sant'Andrea or Duomo di Amalfi. A combination of traditions, cultures, styles and architectural lines are retraced in the collection, offered in the 53x53x1.2cm format, with a matte finish, rigorously decorated by hand, piece by piece.
Duka presents the new Colour Up Your Life proposal, available some shower enclosures from the natura 4000 and libero 4000 lines bringing color into the bathroom environment, transforming into elements with even more contemporary appeal. The project reinterprets the concept of wellness, understood as comfort and visual fulfillment, under the banner of design and color.
At Cersaie Fiandre Architectural Surfaces presents the new Pulsar collection of ceramic surfaces, a tactile and visual journey into the materiality of the elements. The series comes in five colors with natural tones - Snow Pulsar, Graphite Pulsar, Gravel Pulsar, Silt Pulsar and Dune Pulsar - and three finishes - Satin, Natural R10B and Structured R10B.
Ceramiche Keope presents the new Percorsi Frame collection, where the boundaries between indoor and outdoor blur in the extraordinary variety of graphisms, finishes and thicknesses available, while maintaining the peculiarities that differentiate outdoor stone from indoor stone.
Nexion's research leads to the two Stone Gallery and Marble Gallery collections. Nexion sintered stones are characterised by extremely high performance, as well as restoring all the flavour of natural surfaces by combining exclusivity, elegance and colour fidelity. A process, that of sintering, which allows the surfaces to be subjected to extremely high pressures and temperatures (1200 degrees), giving the products physical-mechanical characteristics unprecedented in the porcelain stoneware design sector.
Rak Ceramics, combines innovation and technology with its new collections: Tiles reminiscent of ancient Mediterranean architecture such as TIBUR FROM BAALBEK, but also tiles that combine different surfaces within them such as B-Materia which includes marble and stone. Seawood, which recalls the design of marine wood recovered from beaches, or Dark Ink inspired by Venice and its craftsmen.
Ceramiche Refin is also returning to the event with two brand new collections: Canal Grande, inspired by the most glamorous soul of Venice and the famous city's nautical culture, and Prestigio, a synthesis of sixty years of history of a company that has always blended craftsmanship and research.
Instead, Simas launches the new Baloon collection, a series of design washbasins with rounded, reassuring shapes that hark back to childhood. These are four 'bowls' with a friendly design, declined in two square and two circular shapes with different diameters and depths.
Finally, VitrA enriches the tile collection with a variety of proposals to meet different aesthetic needs and create surfaces with a style that lasts. The aesthetics of the collection are combined with a clear desire to promote a circular culture, environmental protection and green design.