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Ceramics has spent a century treating crazing as a defect. Punto files it under finish — deliberately. Its two deepest colours, Vert and Brun, wear a reactive glaze that emerges from a second firing covered in fine, intentional micro-cracks; meanwhile the standard ISO 10545/11 crazing test on the collection comes back «unchanged». The difference between a flaw and a signature, it turns out, is intention — and paperwork.
Designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec in 2021 and named Best of Year 2022 by Interior Design, Punto is a glazed pressed-body wall tile (UNI EN 14411, group BIII) for interiors only: a 31.5×4 cm listel carrying one dot, raised on the Up texture (15 mm) or sunk on the Down (13 mm), supplied on meshes of five. Ten colours — five matt, three glossy, two crackle — make twenty references, with class 5 stain resistance, A–B chemical resistance, 64% pre-consumer recycled content declared to ISO 14021 and VOC class A+.
The brothers call it their first truly decorative work, and it is built for big walls: boardroom backdrops, reception fronts, the wall a lift opens onto. Laying follows the mesh — slow-setting adhesive, the sheet's own joint, fine cement grout, and a gentler regime for the crackle pair (no acids, no descalers, no epoxy). La Mercanti supplies samples against a cost that is fully credited at order confirmation, with the technical sheet and certificates downloadable from this page.
Collection: Punto
Manufacturer: Mutina
Design: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, 2021 — registered design no. 009069826-001/0008 (27/06/2022)
Award: Best of Year 2022 (Interior Design)
Material: glazed pressed body — UNI EN 14411, group BIII GL
Textures: Up (15 mm (0.59 in), raised dot) · Down (13 mm (0.51 in), recessed dot)
Format: 31.5×4 cm (12.4×1.6 in) listel on meshes of 5 pieces (21.1×31.5 cm (8.3×12.4 in) — 8''×12'')
Colours: 10 — matt White, Grey, Red, Blue, Green · glossy Blanc, Gris, Rose · glossy crackle Vert, Brun (reactive double-fired glaze)
Use: wall covering — interior only
Declared values: water absorption 17% (ISO 10545/3) · stain resistance class 5 · acids and bases A–B · thermal shock and crazing: unchanged
Sustainability: 64% pre-consumer recycled content, all colours (LEED 4.1, ISO 14021 declaration) · VOC class A+
Installation: dry, flat walls · slow-setting adhesive · joint as per mesh · fine-grain cement grout, 0.5 sqm at a time (no epoxy on Vert and Brun)
Packing: 12 pieces per box = 0.79 sqm
Documents: VOC, HPD, SDS, BPD3 and Declaration of Contents on request
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A finish, created on purpose: the reactive glaze develops a web of fine micro-cracks in a second firing, so no two listels read identically. Meanwhile the collection's ISO 10545/11 crazing-resistance test result is declared «unchanged» — the accidental kind is engineered out, the intentional kind is the point. Specify it knowingly: acids, descalers and epoxy grout are off the menu for these two colours.
Meshes of five 31.5×4 cm listels, each sheet 21.1×31.5 cm — 8 by 12 inches — packed twelve to a box (0.79 sqm). You lay sheets, not sticks: slow-setting adhesive gives time to align, and the joint width is already set by the mesh itself.
No — and Mutina says so plainly. It is a BIII glazed pressed body with 17% water absorption, made for interior walls, where it earns awards rather than compromises. For a coordinated floor, the same designers drew Pico in porcelain stoneware; Mutina's own catalogue photographs the two together.
Two audited numbers instead of adjectives: 64% pre-consumer recycled content across all colours, declared to ISO 14021 and usable for LEED 4.1 credits, and VOC emission class A+ — the 1,100–1,220 °C firing leaves no volatile organic compounds to release. Both documents travel with the order.
Up (15 mm) pushes the dot out and casts real shadow — it rewards grazing light and big uninterrupted walls. Down (13 mm) pulls the dot in, quieter under diffuse light. Same ten colours either way; La Mercanti sends both textures as samples, with the cost fully credited when the order is confirmed.
For designers and fit-out teams: choosing texture and finish, counting in sheets, and keeping the crackle pair happy.
Punto's pattern is bold by its makers' own admission and needs room to repeat: boardroom backdrops, reception fronts, stair cores. A splashback-sized strip wastes it.
Track lights or a window raking across the wall argue for Up and its cast shadows; flat, diffuse light suits the recessed Down. Decide on site at the hour the room is actually used.
Matt, glossy and crackle are three different walls in the same colour chart. Order samples of each — the cost is fully credited at order confirmation.
Each box covers 0.79 sqm with twelve meshes. Keep the sheet's internal joint as the wall's rhythm, add cutting margin at edges, and brief the fixer on slow-setting adhesive.
Cement grout fine-grained, worked half a square metre at a time; for Vert and Brun add the written rule — no acids, no descaler, no epoxy — and attach the VOC, HPD and recycled-content papers downloadable from this page.
