TAU and Porcelanatto take the lead in as many as four spaces at Casa Decor Madrid, showing that their products are synonymous with class, style and cutting-edge technology
The event, which is open from 20th May to 20th June at Velázquez, 29 in the Spanish capital, will for the first time include spaces using groundbreaking ceramic models designed for Porcelanatto by the genius of colour, Karim Rashid, and will show why TAU products are favoured by professionals when it comes to bringing personality, comfort, design and technological performance to both indoor and outdoor spaces.

TAU and Porcelanatto are all about fashion, but they are also IN fashion; so Casa Decor Madrid 2010, the key event for architecture, decoration and interior design, which is being held in the Spanish capital from 20th May to 20th June, will have as many as four areas put together using materials from the two Tau Group brands. This result shows the unprecedented welcome given to the company’s ideas from industry professionals, who have the job of choosing the materials offering the best performances and features when it comes to putting across their designs and ideas in the finest living spaces.

On this occasion, the chosen venue is the large building at Calle Velázquez, 29, right at the heart of the exclusive Salamanca district of Madrid. To mark the eighteenth anniversary of the event, and just as Casa Decor has become the major European forum for exchanging ideas, showcasing new products and a platform for creativity, the professionals who have been asked to put together this year’s show have decided that TAU and Porcelanatto products should be used in as many as four parts of the home. Actually - and this proves just how versatile they are - they will be used both indoors and outdoors, showing that ceramics are the ideal material for all kinds of solution, even if it is very complex or completely new.

To go into more detail, Casa Decor Madrid will use pieces from the TAUfine version of the Corten Night range to cover one of the arches over the alcoves in the main entrance . This means that ceramics are becoming one of the most innovative materials not merely from an aesthetic angle but also from the architectural point of view, because they can make a real contribution to the energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings. The choice of this material, with its characteristic dark metallic finish, offers an incredibly attractive result, as it combines perfectly with the tone of the works which the well-known sculptor Víctor Ochoa will be installing in the public entrance to Casa Decor Madrid. The result will be a synthesis of components aiming to amalgamate and boost art in all of its expressive forms, whether in the volumes of a sculpture or in the perfect planimetry of a tile on a façade.

Once we get inside, we find three spaces which have arisen out of the creative experience of TAU and Porcelanatto. The result achieved in the home’s main bathroom is spectacular. It was designed by Guillermo García Hoz and this has become the first room exclusively using designs by Karim Rashid, the enfant terrible of design and international fashion who has won awards all over the world for his bold approach and ability to innovate. This area has been put together using the Poetic and Emotion Carbon models, both of which belong to the NO-Stalgia collection which the designer has developed for Porcelanatto, the TAU Group's brand specialising in contract projects.

The result is something that combines the shock of the new with a hypnotic, constantly-changing effect produced by the symmetries of the pieces’ lines. Together with colour, this is certainly one of the most identifiable traits of Karim Rashid’s work. So Casa Decor Madrid will see a global first, as the Karim world enters the field of ceramic materials, an unmissable event for all trend-spotters.

Another key space at Casa Decor – and a meeting point for professionals visiting the show – is the cafe-bar, using a fusion of TAU and Porcelanatto products which only a few decorators such as Pepe Martín Puerto + Studio Artbe. are capable of pulling off. What strikes you most about the room is the futuristic effect produced by TAU’s Corten B model at the entrance and on the floor of the bar, which combines perfectly with the motifs used by the design of the Desire series, from the NO-Stalgia collection, by Karim Rashid, used to cover the dining room. This is all about designer ceramics for people who want to stamp their own personalities on their homes. On this occasion, the designers Pepe Martin and Juan Artaza have plumped for the minimalism and restraint of the Jet model from the Desire series, whose depth and magnetism are only broken up by the ends of the lines.

The final space at Casa Decor which has the TAU stamp on it is in the toilets of the aforementioned cafe-bar. Of course, toilets are one space where ceramics traditionally reign supreme for hygiene reasons and because they are so easy to clean, although this does not mean that there is any need to compromise on quality and up-to-the-minute design. This is what the designer Simona Garufi was trying to do. She decided to use dark tones from TAU’s Linen series to take a fresh approach to toilet design using the geometrical series of lines which are the characteristic feature of this covering.

FIRM SUPPORT FROM ALCER
The success of TAU and Porcelanatto at Casa Decor Madrid 2010, even before it opens to the public, with four spaces using the two brands’ materials, is largely due to the hard work and effort put into the joint project by the Madrid-based company ALCER Azulejos y Cerámica SL. ALCER distributes the TAU Group's range of ceramics solutions in this part of the Spanish market and there is an excellent commercial and working relationship between the two companies, something for which the management of TAU and Porcelanatto are extremely grateful.