When a sheikh asks you for something unique for his palace, why not offer him a souvenir from his own city? This was the brilliant idea of Maurizio Leo Placuzzi, founder and CEO of Sicis, who in 1988 proposed the souvenir of the Byzantine mosaics of San Vitale, in his Ravenna, as inspiration for an architectural decor.
«We were what today we would call a start-up. The idea pleased me, I had to start producing mosaics right away, and I called some students from the Ravenna mosaic academy to help me. Thus was born Sicis. And those students still work with us, ”he says. That startup has meanwhile become one of the most popular Italian interior design companies, with offices and showrooms all over the world. And that will bring the Byzantine mosaics of its origins also to the Italian pavilion at Expo Dubai, where two and a half million glass and gold tiles will reproduce the motifs of the Palazzo dei Normanni and the Palatine Chapel in Palermo and the mosaics of Galla Placidia in Ravenna. Sicis tiles also decorate the Sri Mariamman temple in Bangkok, the largest Hindu in the world outside India, hotels such as the Ritz in Paris, the walls of Bergdorf Goodman in New York, private residences, spas, yachts.
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In its run, with exports at 93%, Sicis was slowed down by the pandemic: «Europe has been at a standstill for months, in the United States we have reacted better thanks to a solid logistical base and more fragmented lockdowns. But in China, unfortunately, where we have been since 1988, we have had to slow down the development plans linked to the agreement with DongPeng, the largest producer of ceramic coatings in the country, for the distribution of our new Vetrite product ».
This is precisely one of the projects that the pandemic has not stopped: “We have just signed an agreement with Glass to Power, a spin off of the Bicocca University of Milan that produces nanoparticles: we will buy them from them to produce Vetrite, a technological sheet of glass, always conceived as a decorative coating, but with photovoltaic characteristics and functionality. We started experimenting with this process four years ago and patented it in March. We are therefore ready to enter the green market too ».
These beautiful and hi-tech slabs are only the most recent evolution of a company for which mosaic is not just a product, but an art, and as such a source of continuous inspiration: Sicis also offers furniture, lamps, fabrics, jewelry, sunglasses. «We think of the areas of living and the people who move there, who also love to adorn themselves with mosaics, as the nobles of the eighteenth century did – continues Placuzzi -. For the jewels we have invested in the recovery of ancient techniques, which we have returned to the goldsmith industry. The pandemic has also led to the worldwide rediscovery of the importance of the quality of what we surround ourselves with, especially outside, whether it be gardens or terraces. And it is because we conceive our products as a path that, for example, the decorative motifs of the swimming pool lining can also be found in deck chairs and umbrellas ».