Huguet X Pentagram
“A world that is richer, more human and a little better”
The first time Astrid Stavro (Trieste, 1972), a designer and president of the International Society of Typographic Designers, visited the Huguet factory in Campos she was so fascinated that a peculiar project emerged from inside of her. Eight of the best designers from the renowned firm Pentagram, in London, would design different, contemporary and unique cement tiles, and Huguet would give them their traditional shape. The result is pure joy.
text César Mateu Moyà
photography Andrés Fraga




“The first time I visited the Huguet headquarters was a moment of joy, magic and inspiration. Biel Huguet’s understanding of design and his commitment to tradition and innovation has achieved a perfect balance between craft, sustainability, quality and innovation, and they have managed to change and grow with the times”, says Astrid Stavro. She is the driving force behind the project Huguet X Pentagram, a unique collection of tiles and objects that link the contemporary to the traditional.
To create Huguet X Pentagram, the work was entrusted to artists like Jody Hudson Powell, who interpreted the tile as “a piece of technology”. In the daylight it looks pretty, but when nighttime comes it glows softly and enables one to move through the space without the need for electric lighting.
Sascha Lobe, meanwhile, came up with a concept based on typographic elements that can be arranged into a myriad of mosaics or written words”, inspired by Le Corbusier’s ideas on modules, colour and material.
The 24 preludes of Giorgia Luppi are data visualizations of Frederic Chopin’s famous 24 preludes, which the composer wrote while staying in Valldemossa. “Their design fuses the math-based nature of the musical notation with the lyrical experience of listening to each piece”, says the creator.
Steno, by Luke Powell, is inspired by the geological process of stratification. Huguet and Luke experimented with building up coloured layers of the tile base and then grinding to reveal the layers underneath.
Re Tiles, by Astrid Stavro herself, celebrates the beauty and heritage of the Mediterranean. The tiles are based on recyclable materials endemic to the Balearic Islands, like Posidonia oceanica, or Neptune grass, the lung of the Mare Nostrum. These tiles are made with dried Posidonia leaves and pieces of “Neptune balls” (seagrass fibres found rolled up into balls on the beach).
Totem, by Yuri Suzuki, is “a playful exploration of the material, tiles, colour, texture and pattern”, the artist explains. These pieces can be assembled in different ways to create “cute, doll-like figures”.
Tilescape, by Jon Marshall, is inspired by the order and rigour of an English garden combined with the aesthetics of a Mediterranean terrace.
And finally, Matt Willey has designed “a cement coffee table with a wooden base that creates a board area and a shelf within its supporting structure”.
The Huguet factory, founded in 1933 in Campos, in the southeast of Mallorca, started out creating hydraulic, or cement tiles along with around a hundred other factories on the island, which had around 300,000 inhabitants back then. Years later, the company changed course to focus on cement parts and beams, until Biel Huguet, the grandson of the founder, recovered the cement tiles.
“Our pieces bring a [...]
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