Modular Rigid Materials

This documentary block is devoted to the materials that constitute the epidermis of a modular rigid covering: ceramic tiles and ceramic pavers; tiles, plates, and small slabs of natural stone; artificial stone tiles, which may be cement conglomerates or resin agglomerates, in addition to stone agglomerate sheets for benchtops; and concrete tiles and pavers, also known as hydraulic tiles.

Other rigid modular materials have been disregarded, owing to their scarce use in Architecture and Interior Design, except glass, which plays a prominent role in inner cladding and swimming pools, particularly as mosaic, but also as tile or block, and even as sheets. This material is noted in the section on tile installation technique.

The documentation that may be consulted here seeks to address the following basic objectives:

• Description of the materials through their trade names and technical names, and formal features
• Indication of the specific technical characteristics of these materials, to allow the performance of these materials in their intended service application to be foreseen, and also to enable materials intended for the same use to be compared
• Providing selection criterion with respect to the requirements and conditioning factors of the intended service application