New from Patricia Urquiola

"The tiles they design are not just decoration. They use culture, are really fantastic, and truly speak for themselves."



The Déchirar Collection, that debuted last week at Bologna’s Italian tile show, Cersaie, displays grid-like, floral patterns reminiscent of the sandy Mediterranean. And rightly so: Urquiola, a successful furniture designer known for her work with B&B Italia and Moroso, found her inspiration while on the coast. "Since it was our first time doing tile there was a lot of research involved," the Spanish-born designer explains. "It’s very technical. They took a lot of time and the design process was fragile. They (Mutina) sent me the prototypes and at first, we weren’t happy with them at all. We sat on the sand and worked on them for a very long time."



Instead of infusing her colorful fervor for life into her tile design as her personality might suggest, she says with a smile, "I don’t need many colors, and they don’t need me." Available in several different solid, muted shades, Mutina and Urquiola value the highly-engineered ceramic wall and floor tile design second to living contently within.