HEALTH AND SPA

Dear Readers,

In recent weeks, I was more often strolling through exhibition halls than I could be found at my desk in the editorial department – as is the case in the autumn of every year. But, as a result, I also brought back lots of material: novelties from Habitat in Valencia and Cersaie in Bologna (photo left at the Florim stand) which we then used in the richly illustrated post-reporting for this issue of AIT. That we are apparently quite good at this has been confirmed to us by the Bologna exhibition operators since, on the occasion of the press conference on the first evening of the exhibition, they gave us a special recognition for our reporting in the form of a (tile) certificate (photo right). Whether we also succeeded this time in detecting the trends of the Italian tile industry and to present them in a readable way is up to your judgment from page 30; you will find the novelties of the Spanish furniture industry from page 36. When our AIT columnists Dominik and Benjamin Reding pondered on the idea for the theme of the current issue, the following equation forced itself on them: health + wellness = ceramics. Since reading their resulting essay “Let us embrace you, dear tiles!” (from page 56), I see nothing but tiles everywhere and, in addition, I feel I know who will win the journalism prize given by Cersaie next year! But, of course, we also looked for appropriate projects regarding the topic “Health and Wellness” and found them. Tiles play above all play a role in the water park in Offenburg designed by 4a Architekten (from page 114). In how many ways materials, surfaces and colours influence those building tasks which are particularly suitable for promoting the relaxation, recuperation and regeneration of human beings (and animals – see page 100) becomes clear in the variety of the projects selected (from page 76). Reducing fears, especially in little patients, is also the subject of the master thesis by students of the Main University of Applied Sciences (from page 48).

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect