Mutina celebrates 10 years of top tiles with new designer collections
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

Tiles are generally the bottom feeders in the design world, standing on the very last rung in a long rank of product that deserves the attention of the world’s top architects and industrial designers. An exception to this rule is the Italian ceramic maker Mutina who in the span of just ten years has attracted a kilowatt-like clan of designers into its roster, including Patricia Urquiola, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.
'We started with Patricia in 2008,' says Mutina CEO Massimo Orsini. 'It took forever to even get an appointment with her, but then she got it immediately. Now she and the other designers realise that we do things differently; we bring design to ceramics.'
The latest to be lured into this promise is Konstantin Grcic. Though the German designer is famed for his chairs, lights and furnishings, he’d never designed ceramics before. 'It’s a completely new world,' he said by phone from Fiorano, where Mutina was celebrating their 10th anniversary with an exhibit in their Angelo Mangiarotti-designed industrial headquarters. 'I’m very much a product designers. I never work on architectural elements — the walls and floors are always a given. So there was something very elementary but also very radical about tiles.'
Grcic cut squared tiles of 30x30cm and 60x60cm that each feature a different, partially glazed geometric form on the surface that creates a half raw, half finely glossed effect. The tiles come in six different earthy tones.
'80 per cent of production of ceramics today are made from fake wood, or fake stone and it’s extremely annoying,' adds Ronan Bouroullec, who together with his brother Erwan also presented a new collection for Mutina, their second for the company. 'But now Mutina has entered in this field with a new direction, great quality and they’re such a big success.'
Entitled 'Rombini', the Bouroullec brother’s tiles required two years of research and are composed of three models: tiles, mosaics and relief elements that can all be used together to create unusual surfaces.
'The [Bouroullec’s designs] are very particular, but they follow their wonderful poetry, while Grcic’s are very rigorous and geometric,' Orsini remarks of the new collections. 'All of our work involves techniques that are never used anymore. The degree of difficulty is very high,but that’s also what makes us unique.'
In attendance were (from left to right) Raw Edges’ Shay Alkalay, Patricial Urquiola, Massimo Orsini, Ronan Bouroullac, Inga Sempe, Jay Osgerby, Giuliana Ricci and Konstantin Grcic
The celebratory exhibition is held at their Angelo Mangiarotti-designed industrial headquarters and gathers some of their best designs thus far
’We started with Patricia in 2008,’ says Mutina CEO Massimo Orsini. ’It took forever to even get an appointment with her. But then she got it immediately. Now she and the other designers realise that we do things differently. We bring design to ceramics’
Though Konstantin Grcic is famed for his chairs, lights and furnishings, he’d never designed ceramics before. A ’new world’ he could not refuse but discover
’80 per cent of production of ceramics today are made from fake wood, or fake stone and it’s extremely annoying,’ adds Ronan Bouroullec, who together with his brother Erwan also presented a new collection for Mutina, their second for the company
’All of our work involves techniques that are never used anymore,’ Orsini remarks. ’The degree of difficulty is very high,but that’s also what makes us unique’
JJ Martin
-
Pictures from Home: photographer Larry Sultan’s domestic drama arrives on Broadway
Winner of ‘Best Adaptation’ in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards, Pictures from Home at Studio 54 brings the memoir of American photographer Larry Sultan to Broadway, starring Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein and Zoë Wanamaker
By Sophie Gladstone • Published
-
Upgrade your Ikea kitchen with Superfront’s Bruta collection by Raw-Edges
Stockholm Design Week 2023: Raw Edges designed the new Bruta Kitchen for Superfront, marking the Swedish brand’s first design collaboration
By Rosa Bertoli • Published
-
Circus tent structure inspires this Japanese holiday home for a car lover
Hitoshi Saruta of Cubo Design Architect draws on the circus tent structure for his latest residential offering, a holiday home in Japan, called The Circus
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Barber Osgerby’s ‘Loop’ table turns blue for 25th anniversary
As Barber Osgerby’s ‘Loop’ table turns 25 and is reissued in a new colour with Isokon Plus, we recall the design’s first public appearance, at Wallpaper’s 100% Design stand in 1997
By Rosa Bertoli • Last updated
-
Il Sereno and Patricia Urquiola launch penthouse that celebrates Italian design
The Lake Como Hotel, designed by Patricia Urquiola in 2016, opens its latest penthouse dedicated to modernist design and a new e-commerce to shop furniture, accessories and textiles from the hotel
By Rosa Bertoli • Last updated
-
Kvadrat’s blind collection plays with transparency and tone
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec design the Kvadrat Shade range with window covering specialist, Coulisse
By Alice Morby • Last updated
-
Patricia Urquiola unveils interiors for first London residential project
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Last updated
-
Star cast: The Bouroullec brothers create alcoves and cylindrical vessels for WonderGlass in Milan
By Ali Morris • Last updated
-
Illustrated life: the first in our new series of deftly drafted dream homes
By Rosa Bertoli • Last updated
-
Cassina marks 90 years with a revamped HQ, a new gallery space and a fresh look at its classics
By Ellen Himelfarb • Last updated
-
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec take glassblowing to the extreme for Galerie Kreo
By Rosa Bertoli • Last updated