The Bouroullecs celebrate decade-long partnership with Mutina

Dexterous design duo Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec first began collaborating with Mutina back in 2011. Now, a decade later, the Modena-based contemporary ceramics brand is celebrating its fruitful ten-year partnership with an umbrella tile collection that perfectly embodies the constant exchange of ideas and thoughts on which the relationship between Mutina and Studio Bouroullec is built.

Ensemble: a decade of Studio Bouroullec and Mutina

Entitled ‘Ensemble’, the collection, designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, encompasses tweaked editions of two great classics, ‘Pico’ and ‘Rombini’, two new ceramic collections, ‘Punto’ and ‘Bloc’, and a venture with a new material, ‘Pico Bois’, where the pattern of the Pico collection can now appear on a wooden floor. 

‘Pico’, the first tile collection realised by the Bouroullecs for Mutina back in 2011, with its satisfyingly tactile interplay of small sunken and raised dots, gets two new colour options, while the glazed porcelain tiles of the ‘Rombini’ series, launched in 2015 in graphic shapes like triangles and rhombuses, now come in a smaller size and a glossy finish. Developed from the concept that inspired the ‘Pico’ collection, the new ‘Punto’ range is also characterised by large sunken and elevated dots, which can create unexpected chiaroscuro effects depending on where the tiles are placed and how light hits them. 

The second new ceramic collection, ‘Bloc’, is essentially a terracotta brick with holes. Available in either matt or glossy versions, the holes can be left empty, creating vibrant plays of light, or filled with coloured wooden tubes.

With ‘Pico Bois’, Mutina has produced its first wooden flooring option. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec were born and raised in Brittany and this collection, which echoes the dot system of the ceramic ‘Pico’ range, takes inspiration from the local housing of their childhood. As the climate is cooler in this part of France compared to southern regions, it’s more common to have wooden parquet floors than ceramic tiles, to give a sense of warmth to interiors, and the ‘Pico Bois’ slats are realised in European oak, graphically enhanced by impressions of red or blue dots. 

Taking its name from the French word for ‘together’, the all-encompassing new ‘Ensemble’ range features tiles that, though seemingly very different, are linked by a common thread – they can be used individually or combined with each other to create striking interiors with a strong aesthetic connection.

‘The most amazing thing is to see how all these collections blend perfectly when they are used together,’ say Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. ‘They allow for infinite solutions: the same element, matt or glossy, pink or green, evokes different sensations, providing great variety and coherence at the same time.’

INFORMATION

mutina.it
bouroullec.com