S-Tiles - introduzione

health is basic

In this section we will focus on: the ever-growing attention given to our mental and physical well-being, the necessity of enhancing security standards and the accessibility of the environment in which we live (design for all: for old, disabled people and children alike), the greater awareness of risks attributable to confined spaces (in which we spend on average, 90% of our lives).

Health is basic inquires into the state of art on the subject of architectural barriers and how ceramic materials can help us overcome them, in initiatives relating to hygiene & safety, to studies and solutions to reduce indoor air pollution (the danger levels of which sometimes overtake those of the most polluted outdoor environments) and finally, on what Americans have defined as the ‘silent killer’, the radon (FOCUS).

The CASE STUDIES section gives excellent examples of application of ceramic materials in clinics and hospitals, sports centres, swimming pools, beauty farms or even in industrial establishments, laboratories, research centres; all places where excellent hygiene and safety standards are major requirements necessary for the continuation of their activity.

This is certainly the sphere of applicability in which the leadership of use of ceramic tiles remains immovable. At present however, this is the primary cause of the common association of this kind of finishings with cold, neutral, impersonal aesthetics of health-care environments. The choice of the Hôpital de Jolimont to introduce Health is basic is intended to demonstrate how such aesthetics are not at all the rule, not even where one would accept them due to habit.