Coverings 2010 comes to an end

Coverings 2010, the exhibition of ceramic tile and natural stone held in Orlando, Florida (USA), was held from 27 to 30 April this year in an exhibition space of 60,000 square metres. The numerous initiatives organised by Ceramic Tiles of Italy highlighted the importance of Italian participation in the event, with more than 40 companies grouped together in the Ceramic Tiles of Italy pavilion designed by architect Michael P. Johnson - winner of two past editions of the Design Competition - and made using tiles from nine Confindustria Ceramica member companies.

Following the customary Ceramic Tiles of Italy international press conference hosted by the chairman of Confindustria Ceramica Franco Manfredini, on Wednesday 28 March the awards were presented to the winners of the 17th Ceramic Tiles of Italy Design Competition Award. The commercial category award went to Karim Rashid for the Prizeotel project in Bremen, Germany using tiles from Refin Ceramiche. An honourable mention was given to Yabu Pushelberg Design for the project entitled The Room (Toronto, Canada), created using tiles from Impronta Ceramiche. David Schefer Design, LLC won the institutional category for Robert Restaurant at MAD (New York, NY) using tiles from Viva Ceramica, while the honourable mention went to AR7 Architects for the UCCS Science and Engineering Building project (Colorado Springs, CO), which featured the use of tiles from Atlas Concorde. The winner in the residential category was Pentagram Architects for the Montauk Residence project (Montauk, NY) which uses tiles from Ceramica Bardelli, while the honourable mention went to Baldinger Architectural Studio, Inc. for the Tempe Urban Living project (Tempe, AZ) featuring the use of tiles from Cooperativa Ceramica d'Imola.

Also on Wednesday 28 April the Confindustria Ceramica North American Distributor Award was assigned for the second time (the first time was in 1996) to Arizona Tile, represented by Mark Huarte, in recognition of the firm's well-established and successful activity of distributing Italian ceramic tiles in North America.