Al Fresco Architecture: Fluid Living with Supergres Outdoor Surfaces
For generations, the boundary between interior architecture and garden landscaping was hard, blunt, and absolute. Inside the home, layouts favored highly refined, smooth surfaces that emphasized clean design. Stepping outside, however, meant transitioning to heavy, porous stones, weathered concrete slabs, or timber decking. This material break naturally disrupted the eye, making the patio feel like an isolated add-on rather than a genuine extension of the living envelope.
Redefining this spatial boundary with signature Italian style is Ceramiche Supergres.
Operating out of Italy's famous ceramic manufacturing heartland, Supergres has mastered the art of "fluid architecture." They don't look at patios, poolside terraces, and garden paths as separate outdoor areas. Instead, they treat them as a natural continuation of the interior. By engineering top-tier porcelain stoneware across variable thicknesses, Supergres allows designers to run the exact same design language, color tone, and textural depth seamlessly through glass bifold doors and directly out into the open air.
Supergres designs architectural stoneware solutions that enable true visual continuity between internal floor plans and expansive outdoor dining terraces.. Source: Ceramiche Supergres
The Engineering of Strength: The T_20 Platform
When transitioning porcelain outside, standard internal tiles cannot withstand the immense mechanical stresses of frost cycles, heavy garden furniture, or potential vehicular traffic. To solve this structural challenge, Supergres developed the T_20 platform—a specialized range of outdoor pavers compressed to an ultra-dense 20mm thickness.
This extra-thick stoneware body provides incredible strength and structural flexibility, allowing for multiple versatile installation methods across a property:
Dry Laying on Gravel or Sand: Perfect for building rapid, clean walkways across lawns or modern stepping-stone patio zones without using messy adhesives.
Traditional Wet Laying on Screed: Creating robust, drive-over surfaces for private courtyards, residential driveways, and high-traffic public access areas.
Raised/Floating Pedestal Installation: Utilizing elevated support systems to run outdoor tiles over existing flat roofs, balconies, and terraces. This smart system hides drainage pipes and wiring underneath while providing easy access for ongoing maintenance.
Beyond its massive breaking strength, the T_20 collection features a specialized Structured R11 slip-resistant finish. This microscopic surface texture guarantees maximum grip underfoot during heavy rain or around wet pool edges, achieving total safety without feeling rough or abrasive to bare feet.
Captured Narratives: The Adige Collection
While the engineering of the T_20 platform delivers structural peace of mind, the artistic heart of Supergres outdoor surfaces lies in their meticulous natural material recreations. A stellar example of this artistic direction is the Adige collection.
The collection draws direct inspiration from the historic natural stone quarried for centuries along the banks of the Adige River in the Trentino region. Rather than standard, uniform grey printing, Supergres maps out the intense, organic color shading and distinct mineral veining structures found across the real riverbed rocks.
Because "no two stones are the same" in nature, the Adige collection utilizes advanced printing matrices to ensure a highly balanced mix of graphics across your terrace layout. This historical aesthetic allows designers to capture the raw, textured look of Alpine town paving while benefiting from porcelain's total resistance to frost, moss growth, and harsh acid cleaners.
The Adige collection replicates the complex, varied mineral tones of natural riverbed stones, providing a timeless look that never fades under UV exposure.. Source: Supergres
Sub-Millimeter Precision: The PietraCasa Standard
Specifying a seamless indoor-to-outdoor transition using Supergres requires meticulous technical execution. To make the floor look like one continuous slab passing through your patio doors, the interior 9mm tiles and exterior 20mm T_20 pavers must align with absolute precision. Managing the transition between a solid concrete interior sub-floor and an outdoor drainage system requires expert layout planning.
At PietraCasa, we act as your dedicated technical engineering partner to bring these premium Italian layouts to life flawlessly. Our in-house installation team takes total ownership of your exterior layout from the initial design phase. We utilize advanced digital laser scans to map fall lines and sub-floor heights down to a fraction of a millimeter, ensuring perfect water drainage away from your home while maintaining a completely flush floor level.
By handling the large-format slabs with specialized vacuum frame equipment and executing joint seams with precision, we guarantee that the beautiful, fluid architecture engineered by Supergres is delivered flawlessly into your home.
Ready to expand your living horizons with Supergres? Visit our Poole design studio to experience the T_20 textured surfaces firsthand, or contact our engineering team to plan technical specifications for your upcoming patio layout.