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Cersaie Beyond the Fair: An Interview with Filippo Manuzzi on Design, Innovation and the Future of Ceramics

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Keywords:

Interviews , Industry , Ceramics , CERSAIE2025
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Cersaie 2025, scheduled to take place in Bologna from 22 to 26 September, once again confirms its role as a global laboratory of design, where ceramics are no longer a mere material but the central protagonist of a complex ecosystem of design, architecture and innovation. The Manifesto “A Space for Architectural Design” expands architectural space into a multipolar, three-dimensional vision, capable of capturing the cultural and urban flows that are redefining contemporary living. Overlapping volumes and chromatic planes become metaphors for fluid cities, where cross-pollination and new aesthetic hierarchies coexist with functionality and technology.

The fully renovated Hall 19 becomes the home of the world of installation: the City of Installation and the Assoposa Academy transform the exhibition into an experiential laboratory, where training, live demonstrations and certification interact with technical innovation and applied design. Here, ceramics reveal their three-dimensionality and narrative power, showing how beauty and function can merge into a universal language.

Cersaie Business brings over 200 international professionals to Bologna, turning the fair into a hub of cross-cultural exchange and global networking. Architects, contractors and buyers experience Made in Italy in its most authentic form – where culture, technology and local roots converge – exploring a supply chain that is at once deeply rooted and cosmopolitan.

In this complex, layered context, Filippo Manuzzi, CEO of Ceramica Sant’Agostino and Chairman for Promotional Activities and Trade Fairs at Confindustria Ceramica, offers a privileged perspective. He explains how Cersaie has evolved from being a marketplace to becoming a cultural incubator, where innovation, sustainability and design vision converge, charting the future trajectory of Italian ceramics and global architecture.

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In what way does the new Cersaie 2025 Manifesto, with its “multipolar” and three-dimensional vision of architectural space, reflect the global transformations reshaping the way we live, inhabit and design?

The Manifesto captures a decisive shift: ceramics are no longer merely a covering, but a fully-fledged architectural material. Thanks to large formats, variable thicknesses and increasingly advanced technologies, they have become an integral part of the building system – from interiors to exteriors, from floors to ventilated façades, right through to furniture and urban elements. A total, versatile surface, capable of adapting to new global scenarios and embodying the idea of architecture as fluid space, constantly in transformation.

The large-scale images welcoming visitors: are they just backdrops, or do they suggest that material itself wishes to speak as language and identity before being seen as product?

They are not simple backdrops, but a visual manifesto: material speaking for itself. After the digital printing era, ceramics are increasingly focusing on substance and three-dimensionality, creating surfaces that are not only seen but also touched. This marks an evolution that goes beyond graphics: authentic textures, close to natural materials, capable of transforming ceramics into architectural language and identity – before product.

Image copyright: @Cersaie
Image copyright: @Cersaie

Among hybrid surfaces, start-ups and new pavilions, Cersaie seems to anticipate a vision of a city in constant metamorphosis: are we witnessing the rise of an “urbanism of design”?

Cersaie is already set within a city in motion: the halls are renewed, spaces expand, functions multiply. Alongside leading ceramic and bathroom brands, there is room for start-ups, innovative applications and, above all, the world of installation, which evolves in parallel with new formats and thicknesses. Where once the fair was a sequence of stands, it is now an ecosystem: a place where materials, technologies and skills converge, anticipating an “urbanism of design” shaped by cross-pollination and new identities.

Image copyright: @Cersaie
Image copyright: @Cersaie
Image copyright: @Cersaie
Image copyright: @Cersaie

The ADI awards at Cersaie do not merely celebrate objects and displays but cultural processes: how important is the “staging” of a product today in defining its identity and paving the way towards recognition such as the Compasso d’Oro?

Ceramics have already won the Compasso d’Oro, and many products showcased at Cersaie have entered the ADI Design Index: proof that “staging” matters as much as the object itself. Today, it is no longer enough to present panels or samples: what is needed is storytelling, creating environments that inspire professionals, architects, designers and international buyers. High-end companies have grasped this: their stands increasingly resemble fashion sets, transforming the product into experience and identity. This narrative capacity is what paves the way to major recognition.

Image copyright: @Cersaie2024
Image copyright: @Cersaie2024
Image copyright: @Cersaie2024
Image copyright: @Cersaie2024

With over 200 international professionals hosted by the Cersaie Business programme, the fair becomes a global laboratory of exchange: how does the trajectory of Made in Italy change when design is no longer just exported, but influenced and reshaped by diverse cultures?

Made in Italy in ceramics and bathroom furnishings remains a cornerstone: over 90% of surface production takes place in Emilia-Romagna, with other hubs such as Civita Castellana specialising in sanitaryware. The mind and the heart – design and production – must remain in Italy: this rootedness guarantees quality and international leadership. Some companies have plants abroad to be closer to markets, but not to cut prices or standards. The strength of Made in Italy does not lie in volumes, but in high-end positioning, exports, and the ability to engage with different cultures without losing its identity.

Image copyright: @Cersaie2024
Image copyright: @Cersaie2024

Between awards, meetings, conferences and cultural crossovers, Cersaie seems to take on the role of a “global observatory” of design: to what extent can a fair evolve from marketplace to critical conscience of contemporary design?

Cersaie’s primary goal is to reinforce the leadership of Italian ceramics and bathroom furnishings worldwide. Its role as a “critical conscience” of design is a secondary but significant effect: in recent years, the industry has succeeded in making ceramics a transversal, sustainable material, chosen by major architectural firms not as a substitute but as a protagonist. Collaborations with architects and designers, dedicated collections, evolved exhibition language and a focus on sustainability have transformed the fair into a place where trade meets innovation and design reflection, opening Cersaie to the international stage without losing its primary commercial purpose.

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