Ceramica Cumella
Spanien

CERÀMICA CUMELLA, THE INDUSTRIAL HANDS

The familiar workshop CERÀMICA CUMELLA, founded in 1880 in Granollers (Barcelona), originally devoted to the manufacturing of traditional ceramics and pottery for daily use, has finally beco

me the central core of an intense public and professional activity.

Ceràmica Cumella has lately experienced a notorious increase in the industrial production of serial pieces -floorings, socles, lattices, coatings, steps, modular elements- undoubte

dly specifical in many cases since they are commanded pieces. Acting as if it were a memory of his father's inaugural essence, Toni Cumella thinks his work out of the conviction of a necessary integration of technical tradition and innovative process, en

couraging with a steady hand a continued search, for example, on the definition of colours and the manufacturing of the corresponding glazes, both for mechanical or manual applications; or on finding solutions on how to keep up with present technological

requirements; this is well shown with the pieces produced at the workshop for the global project of Villa Nurbs, by Enric Ruiz-Geli, in Empúriabrava, where a previous sophisticated digitalization allows the serial production of ceramic plates which are l

ater round off by hand and achieve completion by means of the pictorial intervention of artist Frederic Amat. Within the several contemporary projects carried out, there are some outstanding ones as those achieved with Cristián Cirici, Pep Bonet, Lluís Cl

otet, Óscar Tusquets and Enric Steegmann, associates of Estudio Per, Jordi Garcés and Enric Sòria. Within the latest, or even in process, we find works by Josep Mª Botey, Fuensanta Nieto&Enrique Sobejano, Juan I. Linazasoro, Patxi Mangado, Jaume Bach, Ju

an A. Martínez Lapeña&Elies Torres, Ángel Fernández Alba, Carme Pinós, Jean Nouvel, Ramón Sanabria, B-720, Tuñon y Mansilla, Carlos Ferrater ... There are two names which have probably become emblematic in regard to projection and public visibility of CE

RÀMICA CUMELLA: Enric Miralles&Benedetta Tagliabue with the park at Diagonal Mar and Santa Caterina Market (both in Barcelona), and Alejandro Zaera-Polo, with the Spanish Pavilion at the Expo 2005 in Aichi (Japan). Other projects are the Congress Palace a

nd the Spanish Pavilion at Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, the Auditorium en Santa Cruz de la Zarza (Toledo), The Court of Justice building in Terrassa, a block of flats in Barakaldo, renovation of the pavement of the Alameda de Hércules in Sevilla, or the already

mentioned Villa Nurbs.
Toni Cumella spontaneously associates craftsmanship with serial production, personalization, adaptability, history and culture, not necessarily by this order. He sees it all as a use of concepts, techniques and processes so as t

o achieve a specifical form of life; he thinks that identity is becoming more needed in a global world, and an evolved craftsmanship will provide us this identity.