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 1-La situación actual del sector cerámico.

La industria cerámica va ligada a la cultura de nuestra tierra, desde los primitivos talleres hasta el esplendor de las primeras fábricas en los siglos XVIII y XIX. Durante los últimos diez años ha sido el motor económico creando uno de los parques industriales más importantes del país. El auge de la construcción requería de un suministro de producto que se servía gracias a una gran capacidad de producción pero ese ritmo frenético, imposibilitaba un tiempo de planificación necesario para diversificar y especializar las empresas.

A partir de la crisis económica y de la construcción en España, el sector sufre una brutal contracción de la demanda, quedándose como insostenibles los procesos de producción a gran escala. La pérdida de negocio, los recortes de producción, de plantilla, unidos a las inversiones en maquinaria en años anteriores, llevan al sector al planteamiento de una nueva estrategia.   

2-El proceso de adaptación: internacionalización o investigación.

El sector plantea su futuro basándose en una doble vía. La internacionalización en países en desarrollo o con potencial económico, captando un mercado que dé salida al nivel de producción que anteriormente absorbía la demanda nacional. Esta estrategia se basa en la venta de un alto volumen de producto cerámico de alta calidad mediante contratos con países como los Emiratos Árabes, Qatar, Rúsia,  Argelia o India.

La segunda estrategia es menos productiva a nivel económico a corto plazo, aunque es una garantía para el futuro de las empresas: la investigación en nuevos productos, procesos y la innovación en nuevas aplicaciones para la cerámica. Esta actividad es una labor desarrollada en equipos de ceramistas, químicos, diseñadores y técnicos, desde dentro de cada empresa, desde las Cátedras Cerámicas en las Universidades o bien desde algunas instituciones de la cerámica como ASCER y su línea Trans/hitos desarrollada por  ALICER, el área de Diseño y Arquitectura del Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica (ITC), que presenta sus investigaciones cada año en CEVISAMA.

Es desde la perspectiva de esta segunda línea de trabajo, desde la que nos parece más interesante el punto en el que se encuentra la vida de la cerámica. La interacción de distintos perfiles profesionales centrados en la búsqueda de soluciones, han abierto en los últimos años nuevos caminos, desde la aplicación cerámica en la arquitectura como elemento generador de proyectos de arquitectura, como por ejemplo en el Pabellón de España en la Expo de Aichi en 2005 de Alejandro Zaera, con su fachada de piezas hexagonales de colores, o el Pabellón de España en la Expo de Zaragoza en 2008 de Patxi Mangado, formado por una cubierta soportada por multitud de cañas cerámicas extrusionadas. De este uso arquitectónico ha habido un salto al mundo del diseño de producto, donde las características propias de la cerámica: limpieza, resistencia, durabilidad, textura se aprovechan en multitud de objetos innovadores.

Las posibilidades todavía por investigar de la cerámica más allá de los formatos tradicionales o standards, abren un nuevo campo para las empresas que dediquen un mínimo de sus capacidades de trabajo a éste fin.

                                                            

Fotos 3 y 4: Fachada y detalle cerámico del Pabellón de España de la EXPO2005 de Aichi.

                                                              

                                                                   Fotos 5 y 6: Fachada y detalle cerámico del Pabellón de España de la EXPO2008 de Zaragoza.

3-La tradición artesanal y la actividad semi-industrial.

Hoy en día se distingue entre las grandes empresas dedicadas casi en exclusiva al comercio internacional de un producto que tarde o temprano será tecnológicamente igualado por algunos de los países hoy compradores o incluso países productores en vías de desarrollo, y un segundo tipo de empresas que ha sabido utilizar el conjunto de conocimientos de la tradición ceramista para abrir sus procesos de trabajo a nuevos proyectos más arriesgados, que conducen a la cerámica a conquistar nuevos ámbitos de las ciudades y de las sociedades, mediante resultados no imaginados.

Algunas de las colaboraciones de este tipo que destacan por su apuesta decidida son las obras del estudio de Enric Miralles-Benedeta Tagliabue, en obras como el Mercat de Santa Caterina de Barcelona, o el estudio de Enric Ruiz-Geli en el proyecto de la Villa Nurbs. Ambos proyectos han sido trabajados en el taller del ceramista catalán Toni Cumella, un ejemplo claro de la investigación entre la artesanía, lo industrial y lo tecnológico en España.

Actualmente, ya estando la plaza en construcción, el proceso de investigación de los esmaltes, colores y las posibilidades funcionales y estéticas de este sistema de pavimentación siguen desarrollándose para poder exportarse a nuevos proyectos y dotarles de identidad cerámica.

6_Una sinergia latente entre la cerámica y el casco histórico de Onda.

Este conjunto de experiencias, pueden tener un papel fundamental en el cambio de modelo del sector cerámico, y más específicamente en la industria de Onda, ya que gracias a las potencialidades de su turismo y sus tradiciones, aparece la oportunidad de emprender una línea de experimentación que busque nuevas formas de promocionar la cerámica y hacerla visible en el día a día, en la calle, en entornos de la sociedad antes no vistos y de una forma antes no intentada.

Desde colectivos sensibles a esta realidad, se está gestando un proyecto que apuesta porque una de esas vías de visibilizar la cerámica, pase por la revitalización del casco histórico de Onda, a través de sus calles, sus plazas, sus entornos, sus edificios. Convertir el casco histórico en una seña de identidad de las empresas cerámicas consolidadas, abriendo espacios de difusión, turismo y representación para sus vías más experimentales.

Una preciosa utopía, como horizonte para nuestra tradición cerámica.

Autor: el fabricante de espheras

Oficina de arquitectura, patrimonio, urbanismo, paisaje, ingeniería, diseño y arte.

Pasqual Herrero Vicent, Eduardo José Solaz Fuster, Fernando Navarro Carmona, Victor Muñoz Macián, María Amparo Sebastià.

http://www.elfabricantedeespheras.com1-The current situation in ceramic industries.

The ceramic industry is linked to the culture of our land, from primitive workshops to the splendor of the first factories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During the last ten years, ceramic production has been the economic engine, creating one of the largest industrial parks in the state. The construction boom required a supply of ceramic product to be served, thanks to a large production capacity; but the frenetic pace, made impossible the necessary time to diversify and specialize companies.

Since the economic and construction crisis in Spain, the sector suffers a brutal contraction in demand, making as unsustainable processes the large scale productions. The lost business, production cuts, staff dismissals, coupled with big investments in machinery in the previous years, carried the industry to the approach of a new strategy.

2-The adaptation process: internationalization or research.

The sector raises its future based on a dual strategy. Internationalization in developing countries, selling to this new market the production that before was demanded in Spain. This strategy is based on selling a high volume of good quality ceramic products through contracts with countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Russia, Algeria and India.

The second strategy is less economically productive in a short time, although it is a guarantee for the future of business: research into new products, processes and innovation in new applications for ceramics. This activity is a work done by each company in teams of ceramists, chemists, designers and technicians, by Ceramics Chairs in Universities or by some institutions such as ASCER, by the area of ​​Design and Architecture of the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC) in the program Trans/hitos developed by ALICER, which each year presents its research in CEVISAMA.

It’s this second strategy, the one that we find more interesting for the new life of ceramics. The interaction between different professional profiles focused on finding solutions, has opened in recent years new working lines, since the application of ceramics in architecture as the masterpiece of architectural projects, such as the Spain Pavilion at the Aichi Expo by Alejandro Zaera in 2005, with its facade of colored hexagons, or the Spain Pavilion at Zaragoza Expo in 2008 by Patxi Mangado, formed by a roof supported by a multitude of extruded ceramic columns. This architectural uses have produced a leap into the world of product design, where the characteristics of ceramics: cleanliness, strength, durability, texture prey in many innovative objects.

The possibilities of ceramics still needed to be investigated, beyond traditional formats or standards, open a new field for the companies that spend a minimum of work capabilities for this purpose.

3-The craft tradition and semi-industrial activity.

Nowadays, it’s possible to discriminate between large companies dedicated almost exclusively to international trade of products, that will eventually be technologically matched by some of the developing countries actually buyers or future producers; and a second type of companies that has started to use the knowledge of the ceramic traditions to open new work processes in riskier projects, leading ceramics to conquer new areas in cities and societies through unimagined results.

Some of that types of collaborations that are noted for their firm commitment in ceramics are the works of Enric Miralles and Benedeta Tagliabue, in works such as the Mercat de Santa Caterina in Barcelona, or the work of Enric Ruiz-Geli in the project Villa Nurbs. Both projects have been worked in the studio of the catalan ceramicist  Toni Cumella, a clear example of research between craft, industry and technology in Spain.

4-Association between ceramicists and designers. The new industry.

The function of this article is to impulse of possible collaborations that arise from independent collectives of art, design and architecture professionals, and experienced ceramists willing to investigate the future of ceramics.

First, the creative impulse of the purposeful designers, refreshes with new ideas, innovative projects and new market areas, the expectations of small companies that sometimes are trapped in past productions that no longer find outlets for their products. Moreover, knowledge of the ceramists through long years of experience in producing designs, contributes to prototyping and testing of new ideas, through adaptations of the traditional workshop processes.

It’s interesting the synergy which is being investigated by small projects from the office el fabricante de espheras, with some of the semi-industrial workshops of Onda’s local ceramists.

5-Small projects for a pioneer experience.

Since the time when we were students of architecture, design competitions about ceramic world have been a constant activity. Having close an industry so important and so needed of experiment with their products, is an opportunity to carry out small projects, ideas or thoughts, using their products or infrastructure.

In that line of work, we include the research of 4 small projects working with ceramics at different scales in relation to industry, from the small ceramist, to big companies, from a small object, to an urban project.

 

 

5.1_Calefactor. A small ceramic ingenuity as a paradigm of a sustainable model.

Calefactor (Heater) is the result of a ceramic design competition to improve some aspects of our society. This reflection lead a number of mills that show a lifestyle designed for self sufficient and neo-rural users.

A small object that takes its sense from the tradition of whitewashing, using the exothermic reaction that occurs slaking limestone of living when it comes into contact with water, which leads to release of temperatures of 90°C. The object is built with two vessels, spherical and cylindrical, one inside another and with water in between: The vessel inside, made by porcelain and very thermally transmissive contains the mixture of lime and water; and the outer, with a thickened section, maintains the heat transferred between vessels in the water in an environment of 60 º C during 30 minutes.

This project has been self-managed by the office, in collaboration with the Ribesalbes ceramist, Juan Antonio Cano, who developed the models and prototypes. The design was the winner of the Valencia Crea 2012 Prize in better product design, and it has made possible to start a process of prototyping the object.

A small example of business innovation towards sustainability, based on the traditions and vernacular intelligence.

5.2_Bancleta. The leap from ceramics to urban furniture to Old Quarters.

The Bancleta is a collaborative management project between the designers and a semi-local industrial company, specialized in a piece of pavement for crosswalks using a ceramic registered patent. The study of this application in ceramics, and the willingness to use this system as a base for developing a family of furniture, develop a series of designs with a criteria of simplicity, austere beauty and versatility.

The idea was negotiated with a local ceramist, Cleto Parra as a partnership, to get a prototype as the mock up to investigate. We have designed a frame with a L steel profile, on which the ceramic pieces are arranged at head, forming a board that can be configured in many different desingns.

The project has been presented to CEVISAMA ceramic furniture competition for 2013, considering as a unitary solution for different urban spaces in the Onda’s old quarter.

A first example of investigations in urban furniture, made by ceramic tiles using them as a starting point. 

5.3_Canyes de Llum (Lighted bamboos). Urban ceramic research around a piece.

Canyes of Llum (Lighted bamboos)is a research project based on develop 10 urban installations in 10 different locations and conditions, thinking around the usability and evolution of a ceramic piece by NATUCER company, in collaboration with PRETOBE and GLS.

A research project made in the office el fabricante de espheras in collaboration with espai m_gr team, about the conditions of a special ceramic piece bamboo shaped, that the production company has stored as stock.

It was negotiated the use of a lot of ceramic pieces and anchoring systems, as the construction system for mounting installations that explores new possibilities of lighting, texture, position, and provides new visibility of the product to society.

Some great features of this process, are the one performed for the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, forming a small garden of white canes in the school lobby, or the installation in the art space La Calderería (The Boiler) in Valencia, where it was done a research on translucent property in thin ceramic materials.

5.4_Raval Square. A green ceramic mosaic representative of the tradition.

The Onda’s Raval Square is one of the most important civic spaces for the city, outside the walls of the city old quarter. In the beginning of 2012 it was published an ideas competition to select a project to revitalize the square using ceramics in an innovative way.

The team create by el fabricante de espheras and Cel-Ras Architecture, presented a draft of a new square, which incorporated the concept of a ceramic garden. The situation of an upcoming archeology, that made impossible to dig in the entire surface, and the need to compensate the continuum pavement of that scale with green feelings, was solved by adapting a patent for ceramic tile placed head up for pedestrian crossings by CEBIS company, forming lines porcelain murals, taking the colors of the vegetation of palm trees (green and ocher ranges), forming a discontinuous and functional green carpet.

Currently, the square is under construction, but the research process of the glazes, colors and functional and aesthetic possibilities of this pavement system continue to develop and export to other projects  provide them with ceramic identity.

6_A synergy between the ceramic and the Old quarter.

This set of experiences, may have a role in the change strategy for the ceramics industry, and more specifically in Onda companies, due to the potential of its tourism and traditions, appear the opportunity to opening a line of experimentation seeking new ways to promote ceramics and making it visible in the everyday, in the street, in previously unseen environments for society and in a manner not previously attempted.

A new collective sensible on this reality, is creating a project that is working in one of those ways of making visible the ceramics, through to the revitalization of the Onda’s Old quarter, through its streets, its squares, its environment, its buildings. To transform a historical hallmark of consolidated ceramic companies, opening opportunities for ceramic showrooms, tourism and representation to its more experimental way.

A beautiful utopia, as the horizon for our ceramic tradition.