Expo Revestir: Style and design took center stage at this year’s ceramic trade show in Sao Paulo, Brazil – May 2024

By Ruth Simon McRae

Held annually in Brazil, Expo Revestir is the premier event for hard surface finishes for civil construction in Latin America and one of the top three events in the ceramic tile sector in the world. With a participation of 300 exhibiting brands and audience from 52 countries, the trade show is sponsored by Anfacer, the organization that represents and promotes the Brazilian ceramic sector, and APEX, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency.

The third largest producer and consumer of ceramic tile in the world, Brazil manufactured 792.9 million square meters in 2023. It is also the sixth largest exporter-after China, Italy, Spain, India and Turkey-with sales to over 110 countries of approximately $392 million in 2023. From a volume perspective, Brazilian ceramic tile exports totaled 88.6 million square meters in 2023, with a projection of 94.5 million square meters in 2024.

In addition to the trade show, Expo Revestir offers a forum, FIER+, that gathers more than 3,000 professionals to its lectures, seminars and debates offered by internationally recognized designers and architects.

Over 88,000 visitors crowded the 700,000-square-foot São Paulo Expo Pavilion to see new products in ceramic tile and adjacent segments. Instagram-friendly displays added fun and flavor to many of the booths. For example, Group Ceral featured human-scale mosaic butterfly wings with an electric blue outline, ideal for taking photos of colleagues. Biancogres offered a few different areas of interest to draw in customers, including vignettes of colorful paper butterflies, folded paper cranes and a front window with antique books suspended at various levels from the ceiling like a waterfall.

TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
Jumbo pebble-shaped asymmetrical tiles were seen throughout the show in a variety of materials and textures from rough concrete to natural porcelain. Most of these styles offered multiple individual tile shapes, with specific layouts provided for the shapes included in each box. The more refined styles were seen at Portobello and Portinari. In contrast, Castelatto featured Organic, a concrete product with a rustic, rough surface, describing its texture as inspired by the effects of water on marble. Biancogres displayed a related product, Onix Bianco Lux, created of several different asymmetrical pieces on its wall.

Black background marble and travertine looks were seen throughout the show. Often, the veining of the marble was quite strong-some in high contrast gold-influenced tones. In many cases, the black had a softened tone similar to the color of a chalk board. While some companies, such as Villagres, do not see this look as appropriate for the U.S. market, Portobello anticipates that its new black marble-look tile collection, The Edge, will sell in the U.S., particularly for accent areas.

In addition to light neutrals and the dark near-black, the big color story seemed to be a range of blue to green colors. Not brand new, this enduring color range has been an important part of the ceramic tile palette offerings in the last three to four years. Two good examples are Blu Sienna from Villagres and Amazonita Real Lux from Biancogres.

Brazilian ceramic tile companies typically offer two surfaces on stone and marble looks, a polished and a matte or natural. Some offer additional textures in particular styles, like Castelatto’s continuum from truly rough and cave-like to a smooth yet pitted surface in its concrete tiles.

STAND-OUT PRODUCTS
Villagres’ Emantura, a collection designed by its in-house design team, was a finalist for Best in Show. The inspiration for this collection came from the raw material components used to make porcelain tile, which were displayed in a large plexiglass box to illustrate the concept. This display was consistent with Villagres’ emphasis on artisan process, including raw clay pots in groupings and demonstrations from a ceramic artist in the showroom.

Blu Siena is a design with origins in the Rapolano stone found in the Siena region in Italy. A lovely example of the blue-green color family, Blu Siena received much attention in the Villagres showroom.

Portobello had a large presence in the show with two showrooms, one for buyers and one for meetings with architects. Among a huge variety of looks and textures for both wall and floor, the showroom featured Folia, a mid-scale terrazzo look, and Bordas, a wall design with robust cement slabs with emphasized raised seams-both designed in partnership with architect Isay Weinfeld.

Portobello is the largest ceramic tile producer in Brazil in terms of revenue. It operates a campus of eight manufacturing facilities in southern Brazil, one ceramic tile plant in North Brazil for the Pointer brand products and a recently opened factory in Cookeville, Tennessee.

One product that garnered attention was Milano Audaz, part of the Urbana Collection, featured on the outside wall of Damme’s booth. Damme is the porcelain brand of Incopisos Ceramica, whose other divisions produce ceramic tile. Milano Audaz is produced with Damme’s new Deep Ink technology, a fusion of digital printing with high-sheen light effects. It has the subtle and appealing visual of a knitted structure that is simultaneously revealed and hidden.

While it doesn’t produce ceramic tile, Tarkett also had a substantial presence at Expo Revestir, featuring new products in LVT and SPC vinyl flooring. With a presence in more than 100 countries around the world, Tarkett stands out in Brazil for its 100% domestic production of LVT.

OUTLIERS
Adding spice to the showroom floor, Expo Revestir featured some companies outside of the mainstream that offered colorful, interesting products. These added a little excitement-and something of a palette cleanser of color and pattern-amid the more traditional manufacturers’ displays.

Keramika is a family business that produces porcelain wall and floor tile, as well as some handmade ceramics. Its booth featured vignettes of colored tiles arranged in modernist patterns, a beautiful turquoise ceramic reception area and wall displays featuring tile ranges in a variety of shapes and clean, on-trend color palettes.

Pelle had a smallish booth towards the back of the show floor featuring printed polycarbonate material in a range of surface thicknesses, in vibrant colors and exotic gemstone-like patterns. The material can be backlit for brilliant and colorful effects.

Weiku do Brazil introduced Weiku Glass Design-products composed of a laminated material made of two sheets (4mm to 12mm) of glass sandwiching images or fabrics of the customer’s choice. This material was featured in a dramatic dropped ceiling, as wall treatments with backlighting, and even fabricated into bathroom fixtures.

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus 

Related Topics: CERAMICS OF ITALY, Tarkett