Ceracasa is the genius Spanish company that brought us Lifewall and Bionic Tile, two ceramic tiles that do great things for our environment. Lifewall is an exterior wall tile that supports plant life to create a clean, vegetated facade. Bionictile tiles work to soak up polluting nitrogen oxide from the air by using the sun’s UV rays and moisture. Bionictile is designed to be used in harmony with Lifewall by transforming harmful NOx particles into nitrate fertilizer, which can be used by the plants supported by the Lifewall tiles. Cercasa is taking the concept of working tiles indoors with their newest Ecom4tile.

Ecom4tile. Designed by Ceracasa.

Named after a collection of buzz words that puts Brangelina to shame, Ecom4tile combines ‘ecological’ ‘economical’ and ‘comfortable’ into one tile concept. The tile features a nanoparticle coating which optimizes the ambient temperature by activating to release stored heat when the room reaches 21 degrees Celsius; the heat releasing nanoparticles deactivate when ambient temps climb above 22 degrees Celcius. In more simplified terms, the tiles attempt to imitate the way we use the earth to regulate temperature by taking advantage of moderate, consistent temperatures that come with thermal mass. The tiles replicate this idea with a technical coating, but conceptually they are acting as a source of thermal mass which absorbs excess heat and cold and then re-releases the captured energy when the ambient temperature changes.

The idea is to not only have comfortable air temperature, but also comfortable surface temperatures. In theory this tile takes stress off the HVAC system by self regulation of the environment, thus reducing carbon emissions and the expense associated with climate control of buildings by 16%. At the Cevisama international tile show in Valencia, Spain this year, the Cercasa Ecom4tile system won an Alpha de Plata (Silver medal) award.