The historic streets and storefronts of Bologna recently played host to one of the design world’s most anticipated global gatherings: the 43rd edition of Cersaie. For five dynamic days at the end of September, the premier international trade show for ceramic tile, architectural surfaces, and bathroom furnishings drew more than 90,000 industry professionals, architects, and designers to examine cutting-edge materials and manufacturing innovations from 600 exhibitors representing 24 countries.
Walking through the bustling exhibition halls, visitors encountered an undeniable energy that extended far beyond the sheer volume of attendees. This palpable buzz animated temporary showrooms and manufacturer displays, highlighting a clear industry-wide shift away from purely functional surfaces toward bold, expressive design elements. According to Danielle McWilliams, principal at Novità, the communications agency for Ceramics of Italy, the overarching aesthetic of the week was unmistakable.
“Warm, moody colors dominated the aisles of Cersaie 2026 and the windows of almost every storefront in Bologna,” McWilliams notes. “Just like in fashion, Italian tile manufacturers debuted collections in deep burgundy, luxurious browns, earthy terracottas and vibrant reds and yellows.”
Alongside this vibrant color renaissance, the 2026 exhibition underscored major advancements in large-format slabs, intricate digital printing technologies, tactile dimension, and remarkably realistic natural material effects. From state-of-the-art showrooms to intimate booths, manufacturers demonstrated how modern ceramic engineering is fundamentally redefining the architectural envelope.
Color Makes a Comeback
While stark whites and understated neutrals will permanently retain a foundational role in architectural design, ceramic tile manufacturers demonstrated a pronounced willingness to embrace richer, more saturated hues this year. This departure from minimalist palettes signals a broader transformation in how surface finishes are specified for contemporary interiors.
“We are certainly seeing a renewed confidence in color,” observes Benedetta Borghi of external affairs at Atlas Concorde. “There is a much greater willingness to use stronger colors as part of the architectural palette.”
Rather than relying on color solely as an afterthought or a minor accent, designers and manufacturers are leveraging chromatic impact to define entire spaces. Atlas Concorde’s Boost Hux collection, for instance, pairs warm natural tones with strategic, high-impact accents of green, red, blue, and ember. Meanwhile, the brand’s Vivia line introduces vivid glazed colors directly inspired by the rich heritage of traditional Italian ceramics.
“For us, color is increasingly becoming a design tool rather than simply a decorative accent,” Borghi explains.
Cristina Faedi, a renowned tile trend expert, consultant to Confindustria Ceramica, and founder and art director of Infinite Possibilità, echoes this observation. Pointing to the shifting strategies of domestic producers, Faedi notes that some Italian companies have effectively doubled the color options within their core product ranges, while others have introduced multiple nuanced densities of a single hue to provide architects with unprecedented creative flexibility.
Green Takes Root
The sudden ubiquity of rich color may simply represent the design pendulum swinging away from years of muted, monochromatic palettes, but industry experts suggest deeper cultural currents are at play. Faedi connects the broader embrace of saturated tones to the current global climate, drawing a parallel to the seven chakras and their corresponding rainbow spectrums—where green, for instance, symbolizes empathy and emotional healing.
This psychological need for tranquility and connection to the outdoors has made green an undeniable protagonist in contemporary tile design. “It’s a color that clearly gives a lot of calm and is inspired by nature,” Faedi says, describing the hue as a narrative of landscapes, wild herbs, thermal waters, and vast oceans. Ranging from deep, moody forest greens to pale, atmospheric sages, these botanical shades share the spotlight with grounded earthy palettes of terracotta and warm stone.
Glossy finishes have emerged as a primary method for amplifying these colors, allowing light to bounce off surfaces and make rich pigments pop. For example, the Plinth collection from Sartoria—part of the Terratinta Group—is offered in striking shades like Moss and Stone Green. Featuring a distinct three-dimensional surface, the collection adds physical texture and architectural dimension to vertical walls.
Playing with Perception
The evolution of ceramic manufacturing has pushed the medium far beyond its traditional role as a simple surface finish. As surfaces take on complex geometries and physical depth, they are increasingly functioning as structural design components.
“Ceramic is no longer simply reproducing a material: the surface itself is becoming an architectural element,” Borghi remarks. “That’s an interesting evolution.”
This design philosophy is evident in collections like Marca Corona’s Multiforme Mira wall tiles, which complement the brand’s concrete-effect porcelain floor tiles. Within the line, the Tassello decorative variant utilizes small, three-dimensional tesserae arranged to create the optical illusion of a continuous mosaic, contrasting glossy and luster-glazed details against a matte background.
Similarly, as part of The Nesting Room collection, Moooi Ceramic Surfaces collaborated with ABK to develop Hypnotic Owl, a floor and wall tile featuring a tactile 3D-relief surface. This physical texture is achieved using ABK’s proprietary 3DTECH technology, an advanced process that digitally applies glazes and precise textures directly to porcelain stoneware.
Optical play was also a defining characteristic of new introductions from Gruppo Bardelli brand Appiani. The brand debuted Lamiere, part of its Pastelli Strutture collection. Inspired by industrial sheet metal, these through-body ceramic tiles use subtle chiaroscuro effects to generate the compelling illusion of a three-dimensional surface, offering an impressive interplay of light and reflectivity that looks dimensional yet remains entirely flat to the touch.
Nature, Reimagined
When authentic stone, slate, or marble proves impractical due to cost, maintenance requirements, or structural weight limitations, high-performance porcelain offers a reliable alternative. While mimicking natural materials is a well-established practice in the ceramics industry, continuous technological leaps have rendered these reproductions virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.
“We are talking about controlled chaos,” Faedi says of tiles designed to mimic natural stone. “Technology can create this apparently chaotic mix of colors, hues, and shapes, but with a great visual impact, thanks precisely to modern techniques.”
Gruppo Romani brand Verde introduced Essenziale, a glazed porcelain stoneware that captures the intricate materiality of limestone. Utilizing a proprietary Contour Tech 3D printing process, the manufacturer colors the ceramic body at varying depths to authentically replicate the natural irregularities found in sedimentary stone.
Equally striking is the Marble Boutique collection from Del Conca, which convincingly channels the look of premium marble and onyx. Offered in Shine, Natural, and Structured finishes across six material options with enhanced coloration and complex veining, the collection is available in grand, on-trend large-format slabs measuring 48 by 110 inches.
Sizing Up
The trajectory toward larger tile formats continued its steady climb at Cersaie 2026, building upon years of steady evolution in pressing and manufacturing capabilities.
“We see large slabs as a way to create greater continuity across different elements of a space, from floors and walls to kitchen countertops, islands, and furniture,” Borghi notes.
European manufacturers in Italy and Spain initially pioneered oversized formats in 2001, abandoning traditional 12-by-12-inch dimensions in favor of advanced pressing technologies. The trend has since gained official recognition in the United States, where the American National Standards Institute formally defined large-format tile as any unit with a facial dimension of 23 inches or larger.
At Cersaie, numerous exhibitors pushed these boundaries even further. Among them, Cotto D’Este showcased its Solaris collection, featuring extra-large formats scaling up to 24 by 128 inches.
From Paint to Pixels
Another compelling narrative at this year’s exhibition was the harmonious coexistence of ultra-modern digital manufacturing and time-honored artisanal techniques.
Ceramica Bardelli highlighted this juxtaposition with Tulipani, designed by Ronald van der Hilst, which features intricate floral motifs realized through technologies ranging from cold digital printing to laser engraving. The brand also presented Searcus, designed by Riccardo Capuzzo, featuring whimsical, sea- and circus-inspired patterns produced via cold digital printing.
In direct contrast to pixel-precise digital methods, Ceramica Francesco De Maio presented its Three Elements, One Matter collection, designed and hand-painted by architect Kengo Kuma.
“I sought to let nature emerge through the hand, where each tile carries a continuous human gesture, sometimes as light as rain, sometimes as soft as mist, sometimes as grounded as earth,” Kuma reflects. “Material, movement, and landscape quietly become one.”
