Whenever I’m in Italy, my favourite thing is to walk from one terrazzo floor to the next. In between, I stop for a long time and take a closer look at the speckled flooring. Unlike in museums, I can get a very close look at this work of art. I take advantage of that. I’m also interested in details of accessories and furniture, which are made of terrazzo, without any museum barriers. And, of course, also the terrazzo items in our assortment. If you search for terrazzo, you’ll find numerous products with the characteristic speckled look.
Unlike any other material, terrazzo sends you on a journey of discovery. What looks like a homogeneous surface from a distance, is a mixture of various marble, gravel or glass splinters when viewed up close. Another plus is that the stone casting technique is one of the oldest forms of recycling. Long before the term «recycling» existed in our vocabulary, people in ancient times made terrazzo from building debris. Adding a binder such as cement turns the debris into a new mass that also looks good: as soon as terrazzo is ground and polished, the individual spots of colour appear. It’s one of architecture and design’s finest, and that’ll never change.
Although terrazzo originated in ancient Greece and Rome, today it’s present all over the world. Especially in Nordic product design: brands such as Zuiver, Hübsch and HK Living like to use the recycled raw material to make accessories and furniture. Often the colour of the debris sets the tone. However, pigments can be added. This was probably done with the table Terra by Normann Copenhagen. Whether pink, mint green or light blue – the designs look good enough to eat with their candy colours. Still, I recommend that you only look at them. The high-strength concrete probably wouldn’t do your teeth any good.
