Boffi takes a turn toward rustic with fired-clay tiles

by Zahid Sardar from the column Material World in the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

With the resurgence of crafted, handmade goods, even the precisely engineered stainless-steel aesthetic of Italian kitchens is getting a makeover.

"We are responding to what people want now," says Boffi CEO Roberto Gavazzi.

The company's newest lines, which build on Vienna-based Norbert Wangen's timeless, efficient K2 kitchen design that Boffi adopted in 2003, have recycled, distressed wood counters, steam-darkened sustainable acacia cabinets and surprisingly humble, traditional veneers that have been used for centuries: handmade ceramic tiles with low-relief arabesque patterns.

Unlike colorful Ottoman originals, these nostalgic matte-glazed Duemilaotto tiles of fired clay, designed by Boffi Creative Director Piero Lissoni, are all white, like monochromatic plateresque moldings on Hispano-Moresque buildings.

The creamy white 1/2-inch-thick square tiles in three mix-and-match designs sometimes vary slightly in size depending on how much they shrink or warp in the firing. The occasional discrepancy adds to the overall handcrafted effect, but grout between the 15-by-15-centimeter (almost 6 inches) and 20-by-20-centimeter (almost 8 inches) tiles makes it easy enough to clad precisely engineered Boffi kitchen island stove hoods or form custom backsplashes and wall treatments.

"They almost look Victorian," says Cardenio Petrucci, owner of Dzine, the showroom that showcases Boffi kitchens and baths in San Francisco. That's no coincidence: The new tiles are made by Domenico Mori in Macerata, south of Venice, in kilns that have been in use since the 19th century. They may well have supplied the dowager queen.

At a glance

Expert opinion: "A kitchen is no longer a craft shop," says Boffi designer Norbert Wangen, 48. "It also has a social and aesthetic function." While he likes spare, efficient designs that are timeless, a kitchen can also be organized and decorated in the manner of other living spaces.
"We are no longer in the '70s when everything 'designed' had to look avant-garde," he says.
The new Piero Lissoni tiles "soften the Boffi look," says Dzine owner Cardenio Petrucci. They are handmade near Boffi's Milan headquarters and can be made and delivered within two months.
Pros: The all-white tiles can be mixed and matched for a custom look. Tiles are as easy to clean as stainless steel but don't show fingerprints. The tiles are intended to fit Boffi hood sizes perfectly, so there is little waste.
Cons: The tile-clad hoods can weigh as much as 600 pounds. Metric grids are harder to apply to American construction planned in inches.
Price: $20-$32 per tile