LITOKOL WINS THE 2026 COMPASSO D’ORO

Litokol Microcemento® has been awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro, the world’s oldest and, above all, one of its most authoritative design awards.

The important international recognition, presented by ADI – the Italian Association for Industrial Design – was awarded to Jacopo Sghedoni and Riccardo Sghedoni, Head of Litokol Experience, during the awards ceremony held on Friday, 22 May at the ADI Design Museum in Milan.

The ADI jury selected Litokol Microcemento® with the following citation: “Material innovation and reduced thickness form the basis of a sustainable, high-performance product combining resistance, durability and ease of use, while opening up new expressive possibilities for architecture and design.”

“This prestigious recognition,” said Gian Luca Sghedoni, CEO of Litokol, “celebrates Litokol’s design excellence and the innovative power of products such as Microcemento®, confirming the central role of our Research & Development activities – which I prefer to define as scientific creativity – in generating unique and distinctive products.

Our investments in innovation have made Litokol a benchmark in the ceramic installation industry and in the field of continuous design surfaces, with cutting-edge solutions made possible by the use of next-generation raw materials never employed before.
I would like to share this recognition with all the people whose daily work makes Litokol a high-tech Made in Italy brand known worldwide, and an outstanding company worthy of the Compasso d’Oro.”

Established in 1954 by ADI – Associazione per il Disegno Industriale – the Compasso d’Oro is awarded every two years by an international jury made up, for each edition, of experts in design and in different fields of culture. The jury selects the most deserving projects from those identified by the ADI Permanent Design Observatory and included each year in the ADI Design Index.
The selection criteria are based on scientific and cultural principles, including design quality, innovation, environmental sustainability, the use of advanced materials and technologies, formal coherence and the product’s social value.

By winning the Compasso d’Oro Award, Litokol Microcemento® officially becomes part of the ADI Compasso d’Oro Historical Collection, declared by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities to be of “exceptional artistic and historical interest”.
Litokol Microcemento®, launched in 2024, is a new composite material for which an international patent application has been filed. It was invented and developed by the advanced research laboratories of Litokol Lab to create a new generation of ultra-thin continuous surfaces with a thickness of just 2–3 mm.

Its exclusive polymer-mineral formulation, inspired by nature – textured like lime, dense like clay and porous like earth – gives the hand-crafted surface a unique design character combined with outstanding performance.

Last September, at Expo 2025 Osaka, Litokol Microcemento® had already received an Honourable Mention in the ADI Compasso d’Oro International Award for its design quality, its consistency with the values of the Award and its relevance to the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”.

Litokol Microcemento® will be on display at the ADI Design Museum in Milan until 4 June 2026, and from 7 to 30 October at the MAXXI Museum in Rome.

Litokol is an Italian company specialising in the development and manufacture of innovative systems for the installation of ceramic tiles and natural stone, as well as continuous design surfaces. Founded in 1968 in the Emilia ceramic district and acquired at the end of 2024 by industry manager Gian Luca Sghedoni, the company is today one of the most advanced research and development laboratories in the ceramic installation sector. Litokol operates internationally across numerous foreign markets, which account for 90% of its turnover, and continues to invest in research and innovation to develop high-performance solutions for the construction and design industries.