What’s so great about large-format porcelain tile? It’s potentially a long list, so let’s just go with: provides an elegant seamless look, fewer seams = less maintenance, and rapid install. Larger tiles also provide all the benefits of any porcelain product, including durability; cost-effectiveness; and etch-, stain-, and heat-resistance.

The above is more than enough to recommend Crossville Tile’s new Ardesia a Spacco, which recently debuted at NeoCon 2021, even though it doesn’t begin to address the specific qualities of this exciting new product for interior floors, walls, and exterior walls.

The name roughly translates as “split slate,” a reference to Ardesia a Spacco’s faithful resemblance to this revered material, a regional slate known as Pietra di Lavagna that’s found in Liguria, Italy.

Ardesia a Spacco honors this traditional stone and elegant surface material via several technical innovations that give the large-format tile (which is available up to 47″ x 118″, making it larger than traditional porcelain slabs) incredible depth and nuance, “with variances up to 1.5 mm in thickness across the length of the slab to realistically mimic natural slate’s dimensional appearance.”

To look at a close-up of Ardesia a Spacco’s surface is to be transported into a world of topographic intricacy. Forget about its resemblance to natural slate, the tile will have you conjuring up metaphors of satellite imagery of the earth, or the eons-old serpentining paths of expired waterways, or the protean patterns of wind-blown sand. And the surface detail is equally impressive with both Nero and Bianca, in the latter case resembling the snow-swept steppes of frigid climes like Siberia or Mongolia.

Ardesia a Spacco is made in Italy and widely available in the U.S. Crossville’s porcelain tiles are made by partner brand Laminam, a leader in large-format porcelain tile. Laminam uses proprietary technology to create ultra thin panels (approx. 3 mm for interior walls and 5 mm for interior floors and exterior walls): “Versatile and flexible, it is a genuine skin for contemporary architecture and is ideal in a host of applications.” See Crossville Tile and Laminam to find out more.