Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition Celebrates 30 Years of North American Design

What began as a joint venture between Confindustria Ceramica and the Italian Trade Agency in 1994 to celebrate the work of North American architects and designers using Italian ceramic tile has evolved into a 30-year survey of the built environment and the creative ways in which tile can be used to achieve a designers’ vision. As the longest-running awards program of its kind, the Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition is now open for its 2023 cycle, and will be accepting submissions until December 19, 2022. Confindustria Ceramica and the Italian Trade Agency are thrilled to be celebrating this significant milestone.

Many of the world’s renowned architecture firms and design studios including Gensler, Rockwell Group, Snøhetta, Rottet Studio, and Perkins+Will have been recipients of this award, celebrated for their designs that highlight the technical and aesthetic benefits of Italian tile, using it for everything from flooring for yachts and major sports stadiums - like the Barclays Center and Mercedes-Benz Stadium - to residential facades and kitchen islands.

Originally, the award was given to North american architects and designers who demonstrated general design excellence, but has since evolved into four built categories - Residential (Single-Family), Residential (Multi-Family), Commercial and Institutional - and now also accepts renderings from students, allowing for projects of different scopes and scales to be honored for their designs. To enter, projects should demonstrate how Italian tile is used to create innovative solutions that demonstrate a keen understanding of the material’s practical, aesthetic, and sustainable benefits, and must feature a significant amount of Italian ceramic or porcelain tile produced by at least one Ceramics of Italy member company. Projects must also be designed by North American-based architects and designers, and be completed between January 2018 and January 2023. All styles and scales of projects - both domestic or international - will be considered.

Built project winners will receive a 5-day CEU trip to Bologna, Italy to attend Cersaie: The world’s largest exhibition of ceramic tile and bathroom furnishings, alongside a delegation of top design media. Additionally, all category winners will receive an expense-paid trip to Coverings 2023 in Orlando, FL - the largest international tile and stone exhibition in North America - where they will attend the show and present their projects in front of a large audience of design and trade media, manufacturers, and tile industry professionals during the Ceramics of Italy Press Conference.

The Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition guidelines and submission form can be found here. There is no fee to enter and multiple submissions are accepted.