Alongside this text it is introduced a new technology of ceramic textile: an industrialized system that works as flexible sheets of fired clay for tiling and laminar structures of ceramic finishing. This system achieves substantial construction quickness, owns an important mechanical resistance and shows great durability outdoor. It is explained the concepts of ceramic textile, its advantages and uses. They are also presented in this text, as a novelty, the last works built using this textile such as drainage flooring, garden roofing and hanging lattice, that demonstrate the remarkable architectural opportunities that ceramic materials show when conceived in industrialized systems.
The ceramic textile is an innovative industrialized system based on a braid of steel wire that confines a grid of pieces of fired clay laid over a board. With this system flexible ceramic sheets are achieved for coating (flooring, façade, and roofing) and laminar structures (vaults, catenary pergola). Its main share is the one of disposing of a millennial material such as ceramics in a new format that surpasses traditional piece-by-piece disposal and where its great flexibility allows it to be stored and folded to be transported in pallets to workplace, and then placed in long sheeting, easy, fast and economic.
These textiles open an unlimited field of possibilities for non-cast coating in architecture. Because of their textile quality they can “dress” façades, roofs, squares, paths…exploring new associations with textile architecture. As well they show a great variability: the system allows multiple disposals of textile (grid, staggered joints, openwork) (fig.1) and different chromatic spectrum. Each architect, engineer or designer can personalize the geometrical pattern design.
It results as a system contributive to sustainability in construction because of its long endurance and the innovation that being composed of only two materials non-cast braided together (the steel grid and ceramic textile) supposes, that can be easily recycled separately.
Just modifying the thickness of the ceramic pieces (cobbles 5 cm, brick 4,5 cm or tile 3 cm) it can be used as flooring, roofing or façade; and modifying the diameter of the steel grid it is possible to structural appliances such as vaults or catenaries. As follows it is detailed some of this uses grouped as laid coatings and hanging coatings.
