Design | “Rombini” Tiles of Vibration by the Bouroullec Brothers for Mutina

French design team Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec created a series of porcelain tiles for Italian company Mutina. The designers state that the tiles come in three models: tile, mosaic and relief elements. These can be combined in different ways.

Rombini is an alphabet of shapes and colors.
The project consists of three models: tile, mosaic and relief elements.
It is a collection that offers a complete solution, allowing different combinations; rhythmic and colorful connections ranging
from the tile to the mosaic;
from the mosaic to the relief;
from the relief to the tile.

Mutina states that the series explores vibration and color, through the use of gray, blue, green, red, and white. The three models within the collection are Carré, Losange and Triangle.

So the shape of the rhombus is told through elements in communication with each other, to become story and exchange.

Carré, 40×40 rectified slabs in glazed porcelain stoneware, are produced on a mould made of many little embossing diamonds on a matt surface which gives a strong ceramic identity to the collection. Carré is available in two versions: Uni, where colour is evenly distributed throughout the whole slab, and Light, where colour is used to underline the white diamonds outlines.

With Losange, the shape of the rhombus becomes bigger and turns into a chip of a mosaic. Made of double charge porcelain stoneware, each piece is installed on 27,5×25,7 cm sheets. The chromatic range results to be deep and intense, thanks to the matt surface which gives a natural character to the product. Even in this case the element is available in two versions, through the usage of matching or with contrasting grout, for a stronger vibration.

Thanks to Triangle, the shape of the rhombus is interpreted in its three-dimensional shape, in order to create games of lights and darkness on the surface: the elements, realized in Large and Small versions, seem to arise from the floor and to carry on the wall covering.

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