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In 2012 the Red Dot Design Award jury gave its prize to a tile whose entire decoration is a grid of tiny red dots. The irony is easy to enjoy; the engineering behind it less so. Pico is unglazed porcelain stoneware with a homogeneous body, drawn for Mutina by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and protected by a design registration filed in 2011.
The dots are silkscreened — no digital printing, each one perfectly centred — and only then is the slab pressed with Continua technology, so the pattern lives inside the material rather than on top of it. Two textures catch the light differently: UP, with dots raised by 1.5 mm, and DOWN, where they are recessed. Four clay-mixed bases plus the deep Up Blue, red or blue dot decors, three sizes up to 120x120 cm and trims for staircases.
Rated for floors and walls, indoors and out, with R11 slip resistance in the UP and DOWN textures and stain resistance in class 5, Pico moves from a boardroom floor to a roof terrace without changing its handwriting. La Mercanti supplies the samples first and the paperwork after: colours judged in your own light, data sheets filed with the quotation.
Collection: Pico, Mutina
Design: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, 2011-2015-2021
Material: unglazed porcelain stoneware, homogeneous body (UNI EN 14411 App G, BIa group, UGL)
Textures: UP (1.5 mm (0.06 in) raised dots) and DOWN (recessed); red dots and blue dots silkscreen decors, no digital printing
Colours: Blanc, Gris, Argile, Satin, Blue (Up Blue)
Sizes: 120x120, 60x120, 60x60 cm (47.2x47.2, 23.6x47.2, 23.6x23.6 in)
Thickness: 12 mm (0.47 in) (caliber 09) and 10.5 mm (0.41 in) (caliber I)
Water absorption: 0.06% (ISO 10545-3)
Bending strength: 61.2 N/mm² (ISO 10545-4)
Surface hardness: Mohs 8 (EN 101)
Stain resistance: class 5 (ISO 10545-14)
Slip resistance: UP and DOWN R11, Satin UP R10, Satin DOWN R9 (DIN 51130); wet DCOF up to 0.70; Pendulum tested to BS 7976
Frost and thermal shock: resistant (ISO 10545-12 and 10545-9)
Use: floors and walls, indoor and outdoor
Trims: step tread, corner piece, skirting (down natural finish)
Installation: 2 mm (0.08 in) joint recommended; back-buttering on the 120x120 size
Environment: 20% pre-consumer recycled content (LEED 4.1 declaration), VOC emission class A+; EPD and HPD on request
Awards: Red Dot Design Award 2012; ADI Design Index 2012 selection
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Yes — the Red Dot Design Award in 2012, the year after Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec filed the registered design, and it was also selected for the ADI Design Index 2012. A collection decorated entirely with tiny red and blue dots winning the Red Dot is the kind of coincidence juries do not plan. The award sits on real substance: unglazed porcelain with the decoration pressed into the body.
UP carries the dots raised by 1.5 mm; DOWN has the same grid recessed into the surface. Both are rated R11 for slip resistance, while the Satin versions measure R10 and R9. In practice UP reads more tactile and textile, DOWN more graphic and shadow-drawn — La Mercanti sends both textures as samples so you can judge them in the actual light of the room.
By silkscreen, not digital printing: each dot is perfectly centred, then the slab is pressed with Continua technology after decoration. The pattern is therefore compressed into the clay body instead of sitting on a glaze. That is why heavy use does not wear the decoration away — there is no printed layer to lose, only material.
The technical sheet rates it for outdoor floors and walls: frost resistance to ISO 10545-12, thermal shock to ISO 10545-9, water absorption of 0.06 percent and wet DCOF up to 0.70 in the Down texture. Step treads and corner pieces cover external stairs. La Mercanti matches texture and trim to each exposed zone before the order is placed.
Anywhere the surface must be both quiet and hard-wearing: entrance floors, boardrooms, breakout areas, washrooms and terraces. The unglazed body has Mohs 8 surface hardness and class 5 stain resistance, and the same dot grid runs from floor to wall. La Mercanti maps finishes zone by zone and quotes the whole package, trims included.
A short route for architects and facilities teams: from the first sample to a floor that still makes people look down and smile.
Entrance, boardroom, breakout, washroom, terrace: list where feet, water and weather will actually go. UP and DOWN are R11; Satin versions are R10 and R9 — the zone list picks the texture for you.
Blanc, Gris, Argile and Satin are mixed from coloured clays; Up Blue adds depth. Red or blue silkscreened dots turn the volume up a notch without ever becoming wallpaper.
120x120 cm for continuous floors, the smaller formats for tight rooms; step treads, corner pieces and skirting resolve stairs and edges with factory parts, not site improvisation.
Porcelain adhesive, a 2 mm joint, back-buttering on the large size, tiles drawn from several boxes: four lines from the Mutina sheet that keep the finished floor even in tone and level.
Slip ratings per zone, ISO 10545 values, the recycled-content declaration and VOC class A+ paperwork: La Mercanti assembles the file with the quotation so the specification stands on documents.
