#Product Trends
Design a winter garden with Casalgrande Padana porcelain tile collections: where light and material meet architecture
The winter garden concept dates back to Roman times, with the aim of protecting the most fragile plants from harsh temperatures in the coldest months.
The winter garden concept dates back to Roman times, with the aim of protecting the most fragile plants from harsh temperatures in the coldest months. Winter gardens became common from the 1800s onwards in central Europe, gradually evolving from a simple greenhouse into an extension of the home, establishing a new relationship between architecture, nature and everyday life. Today’s winter gardens follow this trend, naturally extending interior design towards the exterior with a transparent architecture that allows the home to interact with the surrounding landscape. They allow us to enjoy the outdoor experience even in the chilliest months, sheltered from the elements yet bathed in the light and guaranteeing visual continuity with the rooms inside.
The winter garden isn’t just an add-on; it’s a resource that amplifies the potential of living spaces. It can be enjoyed all year round, adapting to a variety of architectures and serving a range of functions: a place to welcome friends, a cosy spot for reading or relaxing, and a place where the landscape becomes an integral part of home life.
Designing a winter garden requires a rethink of the relationship between the home and its surroundings. It can be built as a new area next to the home, or created by turning an existing space such as a veranda, a porch or a terrace into a new space to enjoy, marking a seamless transition between indoors and outdoors. The right design project is thus essential, not just to ensure comfort and a pleasant temperature all year round, but also to guarantee a smooth transition consistent with the architectural style of the home.
Exposure, light and transparency are key to shaping the right atmosphere: a winter garden facing south-east or south-west can help make the most of the sunshine throughout the day, keeping energy costs low. The large glass surfaces amplify this relationship with the exterior, turning the landscape into a constant presence and the sunlight into a key design element.
The décor also helps define the character of a winter garden: sofas with a chaise-longue, armchairs, lamps, plants and little bushes make for a relaxed, inviting ambience, while a fireplace or heater add a more intimate, homely dimension to a living space that extends seamlessly from the home outdoors and can be enjoyed all year round.
How to choose the right flooring
Flooring has an important voice in this dialogue between architecture and nature. Porcelain stoneware is an ideal option for its ability to combine aesthetic research with impressive technical performance, offering plenty of compositional freedom thanks to the wide range of formats, textures and surfaces available. Resistant, frostproof and fireproof, non-absorbent and easy to clean, porcelain stoneware adapts effortlessly to all kinds of styles: from a minimalist, contemporary aesthetic to more classic interiors, as well as country, Provençal, boho-chic or eclectic looks.
Collections inspired by stone, terracotta, concrete and wood deliver all the natural beauty of the original materials in warm, cosy colour schemes, with neutral tones and surfaces featuring subtle shifts of colour. Careful aesthetic research brings all the authentic character of the natural material to porcelain stoneware tiles, extending the options offered.
In the winter garden, these materials become an integral part of the architecture, evolving from simple tiles into an element that accompanies the transition between indoors and outdoors, for a living space where comfort strikes a perfect balance with nature and design.
This seamless shift between interiors and the outdoors opens up interesting avenues for design: using the same surface throughout makes for a smooth transition between the home and the surrounding landscape. Surfaces combine, contrasts become gentler and spaces appear to extend, creating a cohesive look that brings harmony to the overarching design concept.
With this perspective in mind, Casalgrande Padana porcelain stoneware tiles conceive floors as an architectural element that teams versatility with resistance. The ability of these tiles to stand up to heavy loads, thermal shock, the elements, stains, sea air and mechanical stress makes them particularly suitable for settings that require a smooth transition between indoors and outdoors. Made from natural raw materials, they are also recyclable and exceptionally durable.
