AI Generative Design _ The Clayborn floor tile from the Bardelli Group
Continuous R&D investments in the field of technology have always been one of the core activities of the Bardelli Group, a well-established and dynamic industrial enterprise and a major player in the high-end ceramics sector with the Ceramica Bardelli, Ceramica Vogue and Appiani brands.
The most recent innovative methods introduced by the Group include experimentation and new applications in the field of artificial intelligence, including the ability to generate images and products for architecture and design. Generative design has become an increasingly established approach in recent years and has led to a revolution in the world of industry. The Bardelli Group is fully embracing this revolution and has achieved outstanding results and a perfect balance between functionality and aesthetics.
Clayborn is a floor tile collection in which the patterns are created using “generative models” of artificial intelligence, i.e. neural networks capable of creating new images based on a series of examples analysed during the acquisition phase.
The new product is the result of an unusual partnership between the Bardelli Group and Clayborn whisky, which combines tradition and innovation in the search for raw materials in the Westerwalt quarries, where 35-million-year-old clay water has been used to create a whisky with exceptional organoleptic properties.
Ceramica Bardelli has used the same clay to create its new ClayBorn collection by combining the local mining tradition with the innovation of artificial intelligence to generate an infinite pattern combining the best graphics of stone, concrete and terracotta.
Following analysis and scanning of various natural stones and clays, a series of images representing the natural stone were generated. This creative AI system provides the Bardelli Group with unlimited models for use in tile printing that involve new forms of collaboration between designers and printing technologies.
The Clayborn floor tile represents a futuristic and trend-setting vision in the field of industrial design. In these initial applications by the Bardelli Group, the entire manufacturing process involved close synergy between technology and designers, who play an essential role in the stages of material selection, control, finishing, adjustment and optimisation of the final output. Artificial intelligence is a partner in the process, a generator of creativity that produces results that are always different and never predictable.
In the field of artificial intelligence, the Bardelli Group has partnered with Digital Design, a well-known design firm based in Fiorano Modenese (MO) which has cooperated with the AImageLab Laboratory of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore) to develop and patent a generative system for the creation of digital images for printing on surfaces.
