Reflecting the architectural landscape with Mirage

For two years, the Italian porcelain and stoneware specialists Mirage and architect Andrea Boschetti, attacked a particular problem, fuelled by almost alchemic ambition. This was focused material research, testing and trialling, failing and iterating towards success. 

In 2021, Mirage launched a stoneware slab in two (deliberately muted) metallic finishes. Miroir tiles could be used to create dramatic but never dazzling interior effects, silver screen glamour, fin de siècle decadence and more. The range opened up a world of possibility for interior designers and architects, especially those working in hospitality, though Miroir can create wonders on a domestic scale, too. 

With the Reflet collection, though, Mirage and Boschetti’s ambitions went even further. They wanted these tiles to also work outside, something fit and able to endure the elements and atmospheric attack. That was the real technical and creative challenge that Reflet has now answered.

The goal, Mirage says, was not to encourage and enable architectural bling, but rather to create a material that has a subtle and constantly shifting relationship to its environment, that responds to and reengineers morning, evening and dappled light, cold clear light, warm and diffuse light, a material that picks up and plays with the sway and shade of greenery while also acknowledging passing clouds.

Reflet, Mirage says, ‘makes it possible to imagine architecture as multifaceted pieces of the “grammar of landscapes”’. Working with Reflet, architects can make reflected light, shapes and colour a structural element in its own right while initiating a unique dialogue between a building’s form, exterior finish, setting and seasonal shifts. 

Reflet comes in one size, 200×600 mm, with three metallic tones, Soiree (silver), Midi (gold) and Aurore (bronze). All three tones are available in two finishes, Antique, suggesting an antique mirror, and Sketch, where mysterious markings emerge from a matte base. While the Reflet tiles are designed not to age, wear or deteriorate, Boschetti has ensured that they seem pre-loaded with history and patina, inviting structural storytelling.

Unsurprisingly, The Reflet collection has had an immediate impact, receiving the prestigious ADI Ceramics and Bathroom Design Award. ‘A product of great decorative quality with multiple reflection effects that link back to a tradition from the 1700s,’ the award’s jury said. ‘The results have been achieved through complex workmanship, relying on local expertise.’

Reflet then offers architects and designers of real skill and imagination a new set of tools and a material palette for the creation of remarkable buildings which don’t just sit in the landscape but become part of it – a kind of aesthetic feedback loop, creating and reverberating echoes of light and colour.

© Architonic 

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