Design Postcards: terrazzo eggs

A little something I came across that I thought you might like, posted every now and then as a free bonus. This time: how do you like your marble in the morning?

This image of three hard-boiled eggs designed into a terrazzo floor outside a café in Venice has been doing the rounds on Instagram and I love it almost more than I can say. The picture was taken by Marta Orlikowska, who describes its location as the last true local bar in Venice where residents go to escape the tourists. For that reason she chose not to identify the location, so if you do recognise it, please respect her wishes as the owner of the photograph (which she gave me permission to use).

terrazzo eggs at a cafe in Venice

Once seen as poor man’s marble, in recent years terrazzo has become fashionable to the point of ubiquitous. First created in Turkey in about 10,000 BCE (predating the invention of the wheel by some 4,000 years), examples have also been discovered in Pompeii (around 450 BCE to 79AD). The “modern” terrazzo period is said to have begun in the 1500s in the Friuli region, north of Venice.

At around that time Venetian marble workers discovered it was a creative way to use leftover pieces or chips of stone and began to use the technique to build terraces around their homes. Apparently someone worked out that rubbing the chips with goats’ milk brought out the sheen.

The United States’ first terrazzo was laid by Italian craftsmen in 1890, in the Vanderbilt residence on Fifth Avenue in New York. Over the next 25 years some three million Italians immigrated to the US. So highly skilled were those who knew how to lay marble and terrazzo that they were revered as artists. They guarded their trade secrets closely, passing the knowledge down the generations from father to son.

A century on, and terrazzo is having yet another resurgence. While there’s no shortage of bad examples about, let’s ignore those in favour of a new iteration. Just as it was once made from leftover stone chips, so east London company Foresso is now using leftover pieces of wood to create beautiful wooden terrazzo that’s perfect for kitchen worktops.

For my part I’m tempted to have a go with some leftover tiles and see if I can make my own version of eggs outside the kitchen. Or perhaps a toothbrush by the bathroom. What do you think? Terrazzo yes, or terrazzo no?

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