Amsterdam-based duo Formafantasma and architectural materials brand Dzek collected volcanic ash from Mount Etna in Italy to glaze this "totally 1970s" collection of surface tiles.
Presented at Milan design week, which took place between 9 and 14 April, the ExCincere collection of volcanic ash-glazed porcelain tiles are rectangular and feature yellow-brown tones.

"Generally we are never retro in our work, but this just came out and it's totally 1970s, it definitely speaks of the decade," said the designers.
Suitable for both indoor and outdoor surfaces, the tiles are available in two sizes and five volcanic glazes.

They are glazed using volcanic ash from Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy, which consists of fragments of pulverised rock, including basalt rock ? a magnesium and iron-rich volcanic rock created by the rapid cooling of lava. "Mount Etna is a mine without miners; it is excavating itself to expose its raw materials," said Formafantasma.

The collection aims to demonstrate the "full potential" of volcanic ash, which is described by Formafantasma as "naturally-occurring, self-generating, and abundant".
"Like César Manrique's evocative Lanzarote architecture, which so seamlessly integrates into its surrounding volcanic landscape, ExCinere is a new take on the tradition of volcanic lava as a building material and a manifest of the enduring attraction between humans and the impossible force of nature," said Dze...