Florim: when nature invades

When it comes to the design of interiors, the natural world is taking over. And who would blame it given our own incursion into its house, with our concrete infrastructures and microplastic beads. But we’re not just talking about invading plant life – though, of course, vegetation has increasingly found a place in our homes, cleaning up our air and massaging our moods. Our current obsession is more with the naturally occurring patterns, textures and colours of Earth which are chasing out the straight lines and uninterrupted surfaces we have embraced since Le Corbusier designated a house as a ‘machine for living in’, and a material palette of concrete, steel and glass started to dominate the making of modern homes. A pressing need for comfort and wellbeing has now superseded our need for perfect perpendiculars and left us yearning for the wobbles and tactility of the great outdoors – indoors.

Taking cues from the natural world

Nowhere is this more evident than in the backdrops of our homes and hospitality destinations – in the fabric of the walls and floors, which set the tone for the whole interior. The mighty Italian tile brand, Florim, is among those who have tasked themselves with translating nature’s rhythms into materials that allow us to build them expansively into our interiors. Its latest collections, Heritage Luxe and Nature Mood, include richly veined surfaces which resemble the finest, most sumptuous marbles, alongside a series of wood-inspired tiles. All are created from its highly-technical, ethically-produced stoneware.

Clearly, there’s nothing new about the desire for beautiful stone and woods in our interiors, but accessibility is another matter. Refined visually, but mechanically strong, Florim’s marble–look tiles are created in large slabs, which lend themselves to the shrouding of walls and floors, alongside bathroom and kitchen furnishings. They come in a choice of finishes inspired by stately marbles and naturally-occurring colour palettes. Rainforest is a rich verdant green with brown veins, Glacier is icy white with delicate streaks of light and dark grey, Mountain Peak features the warm colours of mountain ranges in the summer, Tundra recalls the snow-flecked earthy tones of the Arctic regions and Riverbed recalls a stoney river bottom.

Reaping the benefits without harvesting the source

The Nature Mood wood-effect tiles meanwhile, recall a variety of timbers in contrasting shades and are cut for different creative installations – from hexagon and striped compositions to French herringbone-style parquet and chevron arrangements. They work particularly well when combined – for example with wood alongside marble effects.

The point is, this is a way to harness the therapeutic powers of the natural world, without denuding it. The material is flexible and predictable by nature, while sustainable, and in large format, it is ideal for accommodating that other nature-inspired living trend – indoor-outdoor living. The tiles work in both environments and help make the flow from one to the other strikingly smooth and elegant.

Negligible cost to nature

All this would be meaningless should it come at the expense of the great natural world that inspires it. The ceramic tile industry in Italy is consistently and continuously adjusting its sourcing and developing processes to eliminate negative impacts on the earth’s resources. Florim, like others, has worked its way to the recovery of 100% of its raw tile and slab waste and dust residues, and is self-sufficient in its electricity usage while wastewater impact is reduced to next to nothing.

For all their praise of manmade materials, function and machines, early modernists nevertheless taught us to venerate the natural world, by promoting fluidity between the inside and outside, and understanding its role and importance in bringing salubrity into the built environment. Now we have found ways to seamlessly combine elevated function and the manmade with all the benefits of nature. And the best bit? It’s accessible to all.

© Architonic