Anatolia

A Gallery Showroom Takes Inspiration from the Origins of the Tile Products on Display

When you think about where top-quality tiles come from, you likely contemplate a few European countries known for their stone and ceramics. Our thinking got a bit more elemental when designing a space for Anatolia, a major manufacturer and distributor of residential and commercial tile.

Bartlett & Associates designed the interiors of the company’s facility in Vaughan, which comprises an open-plan office and a gallery showroom accessible only to distribution partners. The glass-walled workspace offers a unique view into the company’s million-square-foot warehouse and it connects, via a custom-designed stair, to the product gallery. The showroom offered a unique challenge in the volume and variety of products on display at any given time. The options are also changed out as often as trends and collections evolve. To develop the static features that would anchor the space, we found inspiration in the natural elements used to compose tile – stone, clay, water.

A three-dimensional wall of sculptural waves seems to float into the showroom, guiding visitors into the space. To the left, black and white murals of nature scenes – water washing over sea stones and gradient patterns of minerals in a river bed – wrap monolithic display modules of rollaway panels. These volumes stand like columns at the core of the showroom, with static exhibitions to either side. Floating partitions, framed in black powder-coated steel, display large-format tiles and pattern possibilities at one end of the space. On the opposite end, a slatted walnut ceiling and walls form an intimate gallery space, ideally scaled for exhibiting mosaics.

Phase II of Anatolia coming in 2021