Vintage tiles are en vogue. Many new products on the market promise to bring the flair and lifestyle of past eras into the present. All too often, however, the superficiality cannot be overlooked and the longing for beauty that springs from an aura remains inexplicably unfulfilled. Cement tiles are the true beauties of building. Sure, as the saying goes, beauty is fleeting, but fortunately the clocks run comparatively slowly for architecture and a historic building material such as real cement tiles is an impressive example of this, which you can admire everywhere and which VIA makes available to you in all its diversity. Cement tiles are increasingly being used in sophisticated interior design VIA has been promoting this trend for more than 25 years. Prestigious public spaces, such as foyers and shops or restaurants, which want to impress, rely on VIA tiles.

People have been using slabs and tiles to design architecture since ancient times. Ornamentation, which was colourfully designed using mosaic techniques and, in the case of ceramic tiles, the obvious embellishment of clay as a plastic raw material with relief techniques, has certainly been developing for a similar length of time. From the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, a development took place in France and England that finally produced a mineral binder with high strength, hydraulic setting behaviour and a composition that was relatively independent of fluctuating raw material compositions. For over 150 years now, multi-coloured and single-coloured tiles have been produced on the basis of this binder called Portland cement. The historical tiles with colourful ornaments stimulated the imagination of a refined age and German master builders, like their entire European guild, created a variety of classic cement tiles with a treasure trove of motifs that is probably unique for an architectural element of modern times.

The entire wealth of repeatable patterns that developed over the centuries in different mosaic techniques and multicoloured variants, from ancient tiles in origin themselves, increased dizzyingly as handmade cement tiles represented a significant simplification of the technique and, with the variety of different colours, a quantum leap in design. Advances in the development of mechanical presses and the fact that high temperatures were no longer required for firing contributed to the emergence of countless small factories and the worldwide spread of these handmade tiles. Cement tiles are also increasingly found in many tropical and subtropical countries with a colonial history, such as Cuba, where a very special ornamental fusion has developed. Architecture in South America, Africa and the Far East has also been and continues to be characterised by this extraordinary product, not only aesthetically but also in the literal sense of the word.

With cutting and setting, rough diamonds become diamonds and with the right type of installation and impregnation, VIA tiles can become spatial art. This may sound more demanding than it is, because we show you how to do it and, with a little attention and sensitivity, laying and subsequent maintenance are very easy. While historically the so-called thick-bed installation, the joint laying of screed and tiling, was also the predominant technique for cement tiles, today the logic and requirements of modern construction are followed. Cement tiles are now laid using the buttering-floating method on previously prepared screed substrates with VIA tile adhesive. For more difficult substrates, our decoupling tiles can also be used, for example on some underfloor heating systems.

You can plan your floor or wall design with single-colour tiles or cement tiles with a pattern from the comfort of your sofa in our online shop. Let yourself be inspired by the wide range of realised projects on the viamaterial.de homepage or the many design suggestions and find the perfect distribution for your individual room design. Try out different variations and discover what a border can do to a surface in different widths and at what distance from the wall it looks best. You can literally draw from the full and choose tiles in 20x20, 10x10 or the formats of old ceramic tiles or antique cement tiles. Whether Art Deco, Art Nouveau, classic modern, in contemporary colours, black and white cement tiles or with the lively interplay of changing tones, with the viamaterial range you can enter the fifth dimension of your interior design. Because that is the secret behind the fascination we so often feel in rooms whose design is not just floor, wall and ceiling, but which transcends space and time in terms of light, colour, feel and not least ornamentation. And it doesn't even depend on size; small rooms in particular can benefit from these "superpowers" that the old cement tiles already had.

High-quality building materials always have a bouquet of good properties. In addition to those that you want if you are enthusiastic about the aesthetics of cement tiles, it is the durability of the floor or wall covering that makes the use of raw materials for production more and more efficient as the lifespan increases. As a purely mineral material, cement tiles do not contain any ingredients that could jeopardise the health of your home. The main component, lime, which guarantees the stability of many organisms including us humans, is the mineral that is closest to us. What touches us so subconsciously guarantees timeless well-being. There is practically no living area that would not be enhanced by old tiles. Of course in circulation areas or in sanitary and wellness rooms, but cement tiles in the living room and even in the bedroom are also possible and already a much appreciated reality in contemporary living.