Last spring, northern Italy was rocked by two devastating earthquakes that damaged many ceramic factories in the region, but none as badly as that of Sant’Agostino, which lost one of its manufacturing facilities and, even more tragically, two employees. Rebuilding the region is still a pressing issue, and it was a hot topic at Cersaie in September, where 474 tile exhibitors filled Bologna’s rambling exhibition centre. The show invited architect Shigeru Ban to speak about the emergency structures he has built in similarly traumatized places, such as Kobe, Japan; New Orleans; and L’Aquila, Italy. If there is a model of resilience to point to, it would be Sant’Agostino, which bounced back with an ambitious booth devoted to Flexible Architecture, Philippe Starck’s first-ever line of tiles. The geometry of this dual-­textured porcelain collection is simple – a box within a box – although, depending on how the tiles are arranged, the variations are endless.

The Paris designer’s mix-and-match concept proved to be a recurring theme, and many other manufacturers aimed to entice buyers with designs that invite self-expression. Refin’s Geometric, for instance, is made up of eight versions of one pattern packaged randomly; and Patricia Urquiola’s Azulej cement tile collection, for Mutina, offers 27 bold motifs that work best when laid out like patches on a crazy quilt.

Almost every company presented a variation on simulated wood planks and grey-hued concrete, making the distinctions between one and the next barely discernible. Yet on closer inspection, variety was found here, too. In Link, by Keope, the concrete texture features a ghostly imprint of carpeting, which adds visual softness; while Blend, by Fioranese, is a square grey slab edged with planks. Why are these two effects so popular? Tile offers what the real stuff cannot: lightness, strength, antibacterial properties, and, with an eye on the future, a much greener option.