Remember those perspective-toying posters popular in the 80s and early 90s? At first glance, they’d seem nought but a morass of intersecting shapes and zig-zagging lines, but stare at them long enough and voila!—the whole would coalesce into the image of a polar bear on the sea ice, or a furtive wolf glancing back from behind a tree. The age also coincided with the height of popularity for M.C. Esher, whose cubistic creations often defied us to determine which way was up. Recent work by Mexico City-based Nel Colectivo travels in similar terrain. Individually, their Ciudad Tiles are colorful and intriguing—with a color palette that would have been quite in vogue during the 80s—but put them together for the mosaic of a bathroom floor or a kitchen backsplash, and an image of the future metropolis emerges in high relief.

Ciudad Tiles. Designed by Nel Colectivo.

Concrete Tiles for an Abstract Design

In fact, the Ciudad Tiles are made from marble dust set into a metal mold. Each mold is divided into a grid-like pattern of different shapes, thus giving the final tile its geometric design and varied coloration. Permanent setting utilizes a cement mold and hydraulic press, and final installations reveal the source of Nel Colectivo’s inspiration: the great chaotic technicolor sprawl of Mexico City’s slums and shanties. While some have found the depiction disagreeable, I find it fascinating in a Fritz Lang Metropolis kind of way. The tiles—with their linear arrangements and slow revelation of a three-dimensional spatiality—don’t so much depict the slums as re-imagine them, or rather use them as a blueprint to create an abstract landscape. And anyway, the Ciudad Tiles resemble a map, or a colorful CAD rendering, or a bird’s-eye view of the milieu for the next generation of interactive gaming, more than an actual city. Whatever they evoke in your imaginings, the Ciudad Tiles are durable, compelling, and aesthetically accomplished—a fine feature for large showcased installations or a singular dramatic highlight.

Via DesignBoom.