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-Mecalux is designing an expansion of a TAU plant’s logistics system to meet its growing needs, thus stepping up the picking of orders for the European area which accounts for more than 70% of its total turnover.

-The robotics system and EasyWMS® warehouse management software installed by Mecalux will allow TAU Cerámica to consolidate its loads as 92% of lorries will be able to leave from the same centre in Castellón.

Expansion on the go.
The expansion has been designed especially for picking from pallets and once it is complete, the pallet capacity will rise from roughly 4,200 to approximately 7000, and the system will then have 4 totally automatic picking stations, aided by a pneumatic gripper used to support and hold the materials, which is important with something as heavy and delicate as ceramics. The warehouse, which measures around 4,500 m2, will go from 3 to 5 transelevators and from 3 to 5 corridors. The expansion will take place whilst the existing system continues to operate, which means that, given the exceptional conditions under which it will be assembled, the estimated delivery time is between 10 and 12 months so that it does not interfere with its usual operations.

At the cutting edge of storage systems.
TAU has every confidence in Mecalux as a company at the cutting edge of the revolution in storage systems, thanks to its constant investment in R&D. Software and warehouse automation are the main ways in which the company aims to achieve growth in order to respond to the needs of companies which need both to improve their competitiveness and efficiency and to cut costs.

www.tauceramica.com
www.newporcelanatto.com

e-mail: tau@tauceramica.com
e-mail: contact@newporcelanatto.com

TAU and Porcelanatto take the lead in as many as four spaces at Casa Decor Madrid, showing that their products are synonymous with class, style and cutting-edge technology .
The event, which is open from 20th May to 20th June at Velázquez, 29 in the Spanish capital, will for the first time include spaces using groundbreaking ceramic models designed for Porcelanatto by the genius of colour, Karim Rashid, and will show why TAU products are favoured by professionals when it comes to bringing personality, comfort, design and technological performance to both indoor and outdoor spaces.

TAU and Porcelanatto are all about fashion, but they are also IN fashion; so Casa Decor Madrid 2010, the key event for architecture, decoration and interior design, which is being held in the Spanish capital from 20th May to 20th June, will have as many as four areas put together using materials from the two Tau Group brands. This result shows the unprecedented welcome given to the company’s ideas from industry professionals, who have the job of choosing the materials offering the best performances and features when it comes to putting across their designs and ideas in the finest living spaces.

On this occasion, the chosen venue is the large building at Calle Velázquez, 29, right at the heart of the exclusive Salamanca district of Madrid. To mark the eighteenth anniversary of the event, and just as Casa Decor has become the major European forum for exchanging ideas, showcasing new products and a platform for creativity, the professionals who have been asked to put together this year’s show have decided that TAU and Porcelanatto products should be used in as many as four parts of the home. Actually – and this proves just how versatile they are – they will be used both indoors and outdoors, showing that ceramics are the ideal material for all kinds of solution, even if it is very complex or completely new.

To go into more detail, Casa Decor Madrid will use pieces from the TAUfine version of the Corten Night range to cover one of the arches over the alcoves in the main entrance . This means that ceramics are becoming one of the most innovative materials not merely from an aesthetic angle but also from the architectural point of view, because they can make a real contribution to the energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings. The choice of this material, with its characteristic dark metallic finish, offers an incredibly attractive result, as it combines perfectly with the tone of the works which the well-known sculptor Víctor Ochoa will be installing in the public entrance to Casa Decor Madrid. The result will be a synthesis of components aiming to amalgamate and boost art in all of its expressive forms, whether in the volumes of a sculpture or in the perfect planimetry of a tile on a façade.
Once we get inside, we find three spaces which have arisen out of the creative experience of TAU and Porcelanatto. The result achieved in the home’s main bathroom is spectacular. It was designed by Guillermo García Hoz and this has become the first room exclusively using designs by Karim Rashid, the enfant terrible of design and international fashion who has won awards all over the world for his bold approach and ability to innovate. This area has been put together using the Poetic and Emotion Carbon models, both of which belong to the NO-Stalgia collection which the designer has developed for Porcelanatto, the TAU Group’s brand specialising in contract projects.

The result is something that combines the shock of the new with a hypnotic, constantly-changing effect produced by the symmetries of the pieces’ lines. Together with colour, this is certainly one of the most identifiable traits of Karim Rashid’s work. So Casa Decor Madrid will see a global first, as the Karim world enters the field of ceramic materials, an unmissable event for all trend-spotters.

Another key space at Casa Decor – and a meeting point for professionals visiting the show – is the cafe-bar, using a fusion of TAU and Porcelanatto products which only a few decorators such as Pepe Martín Puerto + Studio Artbe are capable of pulling off. What strikes you most about the room is the futuristic effect produced by TAU’s Corten B model at the entrance and on the floor of the bar, which combines perfectly with the motifs used by the design of the Desire series, from the NO-Stalgia collection, by Karim Rashid, used to cover the dining room. This is all about designer ceramics for people who want to stamp their own personalities on their homes. On this occasion, the designers Pepe Martin and Juan Artaza have plumped for the minimalism and restraint of the Jet model from the Desire series, whose depth and magnetism are only broken up by the ends of the lines.

The final space at Casa Decor which has the TAU stamp on it is in the toilets of the aforementioned cafe-bar. Of course, toilets are one space where ceramics traditionally reign supreme for hygiene reasons and because they are so easy to clean, although this does not mean that there is any need to compromise on quality and up-to-the-minute design. This is what the designer Simona Garufi was trying to do. She decided to use dark tones from TAU’s Linen series to take a fresh approach to toilet design using the geometrical series of lines which are the characteristic feature of this covering.
FIRM SUPPORT FROM ALCER
The success of TAU and Porcelanatto at Casa Decor Madrid 2010, even before it opens to the public, with four spaces using the two brands’ materials, is largely due to the hard work and effort put into the joint project by the Madrid-based company ALCER Azulejos y Cerámica SL. ALCER distributes the TAU Group’s range of ceramics solutions in this part of the Spanish market and there is an excellent commercial and working relationship between the two companies, something for which the management of TAU and Porcelanatto are extremely grateful.

www.tauceramica.com
www.newporcelanatto.com

e-mail: tau@tauceramica.com
e-mail: contact@newporcelanatto.com

All eyes on Karim Rashid and his own unique vision of design as he visits the TAU-Porcelanatto stand at the Coverings 2010 trade show .
The international trendsetter, one of the most globally renowned names in design, brings his vibrant, colourful world to ceramic solutions and comes to the United States to promote the ‘NO-Stalgia’ collection which he has produced for the famous Spanish brand, clearly breaking away from all established concepts with a new language
All eyes were on the TAU-Porcelanatto stand at Coverings 2010. The visit of Karim Rashid, the international trendsetter in fashion, design and interior design, was hot news at the ceramic trade show held in Orlando (which ends today), and where he gave a press conference to explain his own unique vision of the world we live in, a philosophy which is expressed in every single one of the many varied facets of his work.

As he spoke to both the numerous journalists from all over the world and all the ceramics professionals who swarmed around the company’s stand at the Orange County Convention Center , once again Karim Rashid demonstrated the importance of colour and textures in his vibrant conceptual approach. These ideas are now expressed in the NO-Stalgia collection which he has designed for Porcelanatto and are a milestone in decoration. These are true “designer” products in the purest and most innovative sense of the word.

Everything that Karim Rashid does is all about freedom, pure colour, shapes and vibrancy, but it is also about being provocative and unconventional. No two of his ideas are the same and yet somehow you can always spot his style a mile off. All of this could be seen during his visit to Coverings 2010, where he underlined that in a grey, standardised world such as our own, colour is a fundamental value , a way of allowing users to put their own stamps on things, and that every product needs to offer them the best way of projecting their own personalities. This is why, before each creative challenge, he starts from scratch, with no preconceptions, and always develops a new world.

The other key factors in this work are the textures, a facet of building materials which have always been the most accurate reflection of society at any moment in time, although over the last few decades they have lost their function, becoming disconnected from the modern societies within which they are confined. This is why, in a technological, visual and three-dimensional world, Karim Rashid goes for digital, geometric finishes, an effect which sums up the relationship between mankind and the new communication technologies.

Now, and as a result of the involvement of Porcelanatto, which has unveiled this latest stage in his career at Coverings 2010, Karim Rashid is breaking the mould in contracting, architecture and interior design with NO-Stalgia, his ceramic calling card, and once again he manages to cross all boundaries without ever losing his own identity. He himself handled the presentation of the four NO-Stalgia collections, which he supervised and which have been designed in 60×60 format and in four colours, with the sole aim of making an impact. Their sinuous geometric shapes, together with lines that create impressive optical effects – which can have a positive influence on the state of mind of anyone who sees them – are the key asset of a concept which is totally new to the world of ceramics. Sensory (Grey, Nude, Red, Blue), Poetic (Blue, Nude, Pink, Carbon), Emotion (Fire-Orange, Grey, Lime, Carbon) and Desire (Nude, Carbon, Grey, Yellow) are all expressly designed for architects, decorators, interior designers, etc., i.e. professionals who have a clear vision of design, of the urban concept of the materials and who create “designer” spaces laid out for maximum impact. The ultimate goal is to express, renew and personalise each space in a totally unique way.

Karim Rashid also announced that he is working on the development of a cutting-edge project for a hotel in Berlin, which is also likely to set global standards in design, and for which he will be using Porcelanatto products, highlighting the fact that the two models which he will be using for his groundbreaking project will be designed exclusively by the Spanish brand, to show how much he has enjoyed working with the company for the first time and that there is a relationship built upon mutual trust. Indeed, Rashid highlighted the excellent finish offered by Porcelanatto ceramics as a decorative, architectural item, as well as providing wonderful value for money, making this one of the most expressive, competitive construction solutions on the market.

Karim Rashid ended his participation in Coverings 2010 with a visit to the Icex pavilion, where the designer and all the people who had attended his press conference shared an aperitif.