Mosaics Martí – Cement tiling

Upgrading cement tiling from the 19th to the 21st century.

Bernat Martí i Arlandis opened his mosaic tile workshop in Manresa in 1913. His sons Bernat, Ricard and Pere followed in their father’s footsteps. At the end of the 1950s, the popularity of other products (stoneware, ceramic and clay tiling) meant that the production of cement mosaic tiling disappeared altogether. Despite this, the quality, beauty and originality of this product lived on. Therefore, in the 1980s Bernat Martí’s grandchildren once again took up the reigns to make traditional cement mosaic tiling under the name of Mosaics Martí.
The business has received the National Craft Award. 

Traditional cement tiling, extensively used in Catalan modernism, is still produced and used in contemporary projects, generally as a repetitive pattern on a single tile or on four tiles. The highly monotonous process gives rise to an internal impulse to break with traditional times and to advance the process’ pace of progress. This has led the business to its continual investigation into innovative ways of making cement tiling by introducing the shardware style of tiling, as espoused by Gaudí.

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