Marazzi's Terramater tiles turn a 1974 patent into Red Dot Best of the Best 2025

Mark 50 years since Marazzi's 1974 rapid single-firing patent — one kiln pass instead of two, saving time and energy — with a collection that reinterprets expressive 1970s tiles and the red clay of its Sassuolo home, under modern sustainability constraints.

Celebrate a 1974 energy-saving patent by firing glaze, granules and oxides into red clay in one pass, making imperfection the tile's signature look.

The collection is made with Italian raw materials and 60% recycled content, fired in a single cycle so glazes and natural oxides fuse with the red clay into richly varied surfaces. Two 3D structures (dynamic Ritmo, Art Nouveau-inspired Losanga) and one square plus two rectangular formats allow modular pattern layouts.

Won Red Dot: Best of the Best 2025 (Materials & Surfaces / Tile). The jury called the collection 'almost art', praising handcrafted textures and a sustainable process creating an 'almost archaic aesthetic'.

In 1974 Marazzi patented rapid single-firing: firing tile body and glaze in one high-temperature pass instead of two, cutting time and energy use — a technological leap for industrial ceramics. Fifty years later, the company built the Terramater collection as a deliberate homage to that patent and to the red clay geology of its home in Sassuolo, Italy.

Terramater fires glazes, granules and natural oxides into red clay in the same single cycle, so each tile emerges with unique, slightly imperfect surfaces — fine inclusions are treated as the collection's hallmark, not defects. The tiles use 60% recycled content and Italian raw materials, and come in two 3D surface structures and three formats designed for modular wall and floor patterns.

The Red Dot jury awarded Terramater Best of the Best 2025 in Materials & Surfaces, calling it 'almost art': 'Tradition is combined with a modern and sustainable production process to create an almost archaic aesthetic.' The win shows how a manufacturer's process heritage, normally invisible to buyers, can be designed into the visible identity of a product.

It turned a 50-year-old process patent into the product's aesthetic and story.

Imperfection — normally a defect in industrial ceramics — was made the design signature.

Sustainability (60% recycled content, one firing pass) was built into the look, not just the spec sheet.

A surfaces category rarely wins top honours, yet the jury ranked it 'almost art'.

An old process patent can be re-framed as a design story: honouring your own technical heritage with new sustainable materials turns a production method into the product's identity.

Terramater became a flagship of Marazzi's Crogiolo line of artisanal-inspired ceramics and kept collecting recognition, including a 2024 MIAW Innovation Award selection by Muuuz; Marazzi said larger formats were in development to extend the modular system.