A ceramic roof for the 30th edition of Cersaie in Italy

A three-dimensional image of two red tiles leaning against each other to form a roof symbolising the world of architecture and interior design is the design concept that will be used for the 2012 edition of Cersaie, the international exhibition of ceramic tiles and bathroom furnishings to be held in Bologna from 25 to 29 September this year.

The image for the 30th edition of the show, the most important exhibition in the world for its two product sectors, was created by Grazia Piccininno, a student attending the degree course in Event Design, Management and Communication at the University of Genoa's architecture faculty.

A simple but powerful idea that underscores ceramic tile's increasingly important ability to adapt to the most varied demands of the market, the poster design originates from the competition “Beautiful Ideas”. Based on the concept of “Ceramic Evolution”, it explores ceramic tile in terms of an increasingly rapid evolutionary process that nonetheless revisits the compositional languages of the past.

The second edition of the competition, open to students attending leading design institutes and university architecture faculties throughout Italy, saw the submission of 200 projects. The jury made up of Aldo Colonetti, Diego Grandi, Luca Nichetto, Franco Origoni, Lia Piano and Matteo Ragni chose Grazia Piccininno from the Architecture Faculty of Genoa as the winner.

The competition marks a break from the tradition followed during previous editions of Cersaie of commissioning well-established Italian and international architects and designers (from 2000 to 2009, Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Massimo Iosa Ghini, Denis Santachiara, Hani Rashid, David Palterer, Antonio Citterio, Toyo Ito, Thom Mayne and Mario Botta), and for the second time has turned to emerging young designers to create the show's promotional image.

In an exhibition floor of 176,000 square metres, Cersaie 2011 hosted 965 exhibitors (including 265 foreign companies from 31 different countries) and attracted 113,165 visitors, 0.8% up on the 112,292 of 2010. There was also strong participation on the part of the media, with more than 700 journalists present, including 248 from outside Italy (35.3% of the total). This figure of effective attendance, which is the most widely used by leading trade fair events as it counts the number of visitors actually present inside the exhibition centre, confirms Cersaie as the leading international exhibition for ceramic tiles and bathroom furnishings, key sectors for the world of interior design.

The 30th Cersaie, to be held in Bologna from 25 to 29 September, is a major event for professionals in search of the latest trends in interior design and is of particular interest to architects, interior designers, tile fixers and construction firms from all over the world.

Further information at Cersaie website