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The New Poetry of Architectural Form

The brand pays tribute to the architectural movement with the Solaris, Arketipo, Blow and Blutech collections: surfaces that reinterpret the strength of the material in a contemporary and “romantic” way, blending rigour and sensitivity to create authentic, sophisticated and modern environments.

Emblematic of the 20th century, characterised by the expressive use of exposed concrete and essential geometric shapes, brutalism once again takes centre stage in contemporary architecture.

An iconic movement, defined by tectonic volumes and materials revealed in their rawest form, revived by shifting cultural attitudes – and further amplified by the international success of Brady Corbet’s film The Brutalist – which has reignited the spotlight on a functional, sincere and radical aesthetic.

Today, however, this language is evolving – shedding its austerity to rediscover warmth and humanity. No longer just concrete and rigour, but matter, light, and feeling. No longer detachment, but empathy. Thus is born Romantic Brutalism: a vision that restores to architecture its deepest value: emotion made tangible, poetic gesture, breathing structure. Squared forms become welcoming, raw surfaces turn tactile and sensory, and matter itself transforms into a statement of gentle strength and essential beauty that moves the emotions.

With this spirit, and on the occasion of World Architecture Day, Cotto d’Este, a premium brand of Panariagroup, celebrates the rebirth of this poetics through four collections that translate the new soul of Brutalism into ceramic form: Solaris, Arketipo, Blow and Blutech. A fusion of technique and beauty that transforms ceramics into architectural material, concrete, authentic, eternal.

MATTER AS ARCHITECTURE

Romantic brutalism is a declaration of love for substance. It is the courage to show what is usually hidden: the structure, the weight, the truth of the materials. It is a search for formal sincerity that today is enriched with light and humanity.

Solaris, launched in 2025, interprets this vision through the brightness. Inspired by the limestone of Southern Europe, it brings the Mediterranean calm of sunlit landscapes into spaces, where the material seems to dissolve in the light. Light surfaces, crossed by tone-on-tone veins and soft hues – Ostuni, Trani, Spalato, and Rodi – become tools of architectural composition, perfect for creating continuity between interior and exterior. Three expressions – Kerlite 6.5 mm, Blustyle 9 mm and gres 20 mm – and six formats expand design freedom, offering a material that is both solid and delicate, technical and poetic.

Arketipo is pure sculptural form. An unprecedented material, born from the union of sand and cementitious mortars, which yields surfaces with an ancestral and profound character. Rigour and sensitivity coexist in a palette of 16 hues and six finishes, where every tone explores a facet of strength. The large slabs Kerlite Solida and the material power of gres 14MM express a constructive language that transcends function, defining monumental yet measured spaces, where material becomes architecture.

With Blow, cement rediscovers its dual soul: Crust, rough and weathered by time; Flat, rational and pure, nearly silent. Two interpretations that complement each other like light and shadow, day and night.

Blow is concrete transformed into architectural thought — a modular, contemporary lexicon where every surface tells the story of the tension between strength and stillness.

Blutech, finally, represents matter in its most absolute form. A full-body porcelain stoneware, homogeneous and profound, where the structure becomes aesthetic. The surface does not cover it constructs. An ideal, essential and impeccable cement, designed for architectures that seek formal perfection, coherence and continuity.

THE CHARM OF BRUTALIST AESTHETICS, BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT

From the brutality of concrete to the elegance of ceramic, Brutalism is experiencing a true rebirth.
Matter once again takes centre stage, not as an ornament, but as a constructive and poetic principle. Born in opposition to the post-war decorative styles, brutalism embodied a spirit of constructive sincerity and pursuit of material truth. Architects like Le Corbusier and the Smithsons have created iconic works, often divisive but always capable of evoking emotion.

Today, architects and designers from all over the world are once again inspired by this language, and even fashion has chosen it as the ideal setting for shows and events. These include evocative places like the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome, the Barbican Centre in London, the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris, the Beaumont Building in Los Angeles, the Torre Velasca in Milan and the Maison de la Culture in Firminy. From controversial architecture to aesthetic symbol, brutalism continues to influence art, architecture, and visual culture with its expressive power.

Cotto d’Este surfaces narrate this transformation with an aesthetic that does not fear the truth, but sublimates it. Every collection becomes a way of thinking about space: concrete, solid, authentic. An architecture that arises from matter and becomes emotion. With Solaris, Arketipo, Blow and Blutech, Cotto d’Este signs its vision of romantic brutalism: a balance between power and grace, rigour and sensuality, memory and contemporaneity. A new poetry of matter — restoring to ceramics their rightful role: to shape beauty.