Living Matter

For Port’s 10th anniversary issue, editor Dan Crowe was invited to design a tile crafted by heritage Majorcan factory, Huguet

Tile moulds (trepes) for patterns line the walls of Huguet. All photography Alba Yruela

Hydraulic tile pressing first occurred on the banks of the Rhône in Viviers, France, swiftly spreading to Catalonia, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, and India, among others. The inexpensive technique (metal moulds are filled with water, pigments, marble dust, sand, and cement, layered with the latter, then compressed with no heat), transformed flooring in the 19th century due to its durability and decoration. At the height of the method’s popularity, Spain had over a thousand factories producing intricately colourful tiles – now, it counts only a handful. Based in Campos on the Balearic Island of Majorca, Huguet is one such remaining artisan using the hand-crafted style, in which no two tiles are the same.

“Some people think of the past only as dead time. For them, tradition is just nostalgia… To us, the past is made of living matter, architecture with character, with personality,” reflects Biel Huguet, who has run his family company for over two decades. Huguet’s grandfather Gabriel established the factory in 1933, passing on his baldosas hidráulicas trade to his son, who expanded its range to include concrete beams. Today, it creates a plethora of bespoke pieces – washbasins and baths, wabi-sabi facades, cobblestones that will last for 300 years, vast pavement slabs resembling Juanola liquorice pills, speckled terrazzo furniture – for some of the most esteemed contemporary designers and architects. Chosen by the likes of Herzog & de Meuron and David Chipperfield for their natural finish, noble materials, and depth of ageing, Huguet’s tiles line structures from Hong Kong to Milan, Washington DC restaurants to Polish philharmonic halls. Their slow but steady ubiquity calls to mind the antique method’s initial international conquest. Or, as its director puts it, “Our world is the world.”