As a result of the importance ASCER places on the professional working environment, which it endeavours to educate about ceramic tiles and their applications, the Association has since 2004 set up a series of Ceramic Tile studies departments at different Schools of Architecture in Spain and abroad.
The Network of Ceramic Tile Studies Departments embodies the rapprochement and collaboration between Universities and the ceramic tile manufacturing sector and creates a community that delivers value all round, to the advantage of one of the basic tenets of ASCER’s thinking: innovation.
As well as teaching their own students, the Ceramic Tile Studies Departments also educate and promote to a broader audience through lectures, visits, exhibitions and publishing material that fosters understanding of ceramic and the diversification of how it used in the field of architecture.
The first ever Ceramic Tile Studies Department was created in 2004 at the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia in Barcelona, to combine the creative and innovative capacity of future architects with the extraordinary aesthetic and functional possibilities of modern day ceramics. It is directed by Dr. Vicenç Sarrablo and coordinated by the architects and professors Cristina García-Castelao and Dr. Jordi Roviras.
The Alicante Ceramic tile studies workshop, created in the school year 2005/06 at the University of Alicante, is based on exploring the possibilities for integrating installations, aiming to provide ceramics with a greater presence in the formal configuration and aesthetics of our buildings.
The collaboration with the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Valencia started in the 2006/07 academic year, with the objective to raise awareness amongst the university community of architecture projects carried out using ceramic materials, as well as to train students and research new and original applications in order to promote their use. The Department manages the Ceramic Architectures platform.
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) maintains a collaboration with ASCER within the Material Processes and Systems Group (MaP+S), where is conducted an analysis of the ideal way to tackle the growing challenges for ceramic tiles in terms of customization (adapting the product to the tastes of each customer), digitalization and sustainability. The project is directed by professor Martin Bechthold.
The objective of the Aula Cerámica at the Jaume I University is to create an environment to bring together the know-how of the ceramic tile industry and the skill of professional tile layers. The activities organized by this department are focused on the continuous study and training both for the UJI students at the degrees related to the areas of investigation of the Sessions, and the professionals of the sector (architects and construction engineers).
Publicizing and spreading information is one of the most relevant areas the Network of Ceramic tile studies departments develop. In this sense, the Valencian department developed the platform Ceramic Architectures hosting a repository of architectural pieces with use of ceramic tiles that displays detailed and rigorous information on the ceramic pieces and the constructive system employed.
On the other hand, the Tile of Spain digital library displays the different publications that have been edited throughout the years under the Network of Ceramic tile studies departments.
The Network of Ceramic tile studies departments is supported by the Conselleria de Hacienda, Economía y Administración Pública de la Generalitat Valenciana (Government of the Valencian Region)
