The concept and design phase is handled by the Research and Development Department, in collaboration with the Sales and Marketing Departments. This creative stage in the process starts off by analyzing the expectations and demands of consumers and professionals, lifestyles, trends in the interior design sector, and cultural and social traditions related to the home.

This focus on the needs of potential users of company products led to the creation of Autonomy, a type of ceramic tile that features a system of textured signals for the blind and vision-impaired.

The idea behind Autonomy
The Marazzi Group subscribes to the current trend in the design world that places particular importance on people's safety and well-being. This sensitivity is reflected in the choice of materials, above all for flooring and wall coverings.
The project's aim is to develop a ceramic tile flooring that can be used to create directional indicators for the blind and visually-impaired, to give make autonomous mobility safer and more independent, especially in places where no other indicators such as natural or architectural elements are available. At the same time, these tactile indicators must not create an obstruction for other pedestrians, especially the elderly, or people with temporary or permanent motor disabilities.

The working group
For this project, a working group has been created that includes blind people, designers, associations, and institutions; its aim is to search for constantly evolving solutions, in a global context where the phenomenon of sight problems is unfortunately on the rise.

Further information
1. Blindness and visual impairment: two phenomena growing world-wide.
2. The Autonomy project.
3. Autonomy: a customizable system.
4. Autonomy in the city. An applicative example. The Merano case.

1. Blindness and visual impairment: two phenomena growing world-wide.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are at present 37 million blind people, 1.5 million of which are kids below the age of 15. The visually impaired are 124 million: without due care and treatment, they will also lose their sight.
More than 90% of individuals with sight-related issues live in the South of the world, where the risk of going blind is 10 times higher than in industrialized countries. Better hygienic conditions, better medical facilities and better prevention would have a very positive impact in limiting the number of blind people in developing countries and reduce 75%1 this phenomenon.
In 2020 there will be twice as many blind and visually impaired people than there are today. In the so-called North of the world, the majority of people affected by sight-related pathologies are the elderly. And with the over-60s becoming increasingly numerous (one in ten today, one in five in 2050 and one in three in 2150) also the population of the blind and visually impaired will grow.
Treatments and prevention will manage, in most cases, to avoid patient a life in complete darkness. Hypo-vision though, whether in a light or serious form, will certainly be an issue for millions of people.


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2. The Autonomy project
For a while, the Marazzi Group has been promoting a culture of accessibility, trying to solve the issue of architectural and urban barriers and allowing an easy, safe and independent fruition and use of all spaces and environments, for all.
In order to provide a greater freedom of movement for the blind and the visually impaired, Marazzi has developed Autonomy: a simple system of tactile floor signals, made of ceramic tiles. Each tile provides – through a texture – an information code that communicates in a direct and clear way with the user. Textures were conceived to stimulate the tactile feeling of the foot and to use the contact of the walking stick on the tile. At the same time, the chromatic contrasts are useful as further communication signals for the visually impaired.

Autonomy is the result of a collaboration with Studio & Partners from Milano, with associations of visually impaired and representatives of blind people, who have had an active role in the definition of the project.

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3. Autonomy: a customizable system




When it comes to tactile floor communication systems, there is no unique, international law or norm to be applied. In Europe, great attention is given to the simplicity of the message and the use of two signals is advised. In Italy, this approach is supported by some blind and visually impaired people associations, while others would prefer a more articulated system, with more codes and information. In some countries there is, on the contrary, a very specific regulation that providesspecific indications for the characteristics of the textures, their thickness, and their use in tactile paths.

The Autonomy systems allows the two base European information codes (the straight-ahead code and the stop/danger code) to exist alongside with a more articulated system, in which more information could be added. Highly versatile and customizable, Autonomy was conceived to respond to the very specific needs of the different countries in terms of safety and independence for the blind and the visually impaired.

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Autonomy 01



Autonomy 02


4. Autonomy in the city. An applicative example. The Merano case.

For Merano, an Italian city with a strong tradition in the hospitality and tourism businesses, it is fundamentally important to guarantee the accessibility of its public services to all: inhabitants and guests, whether disabled or not. The city administration decided to take a concrete step in enhancing the accessibility of its public transport network and thus originated an urban intervention project in which Marazzi, Studio A4 from Merano and Studio & Partners from Milano took an active role, supported by the IIDD - Design for All Italy.
A public transport line was used as pilot project. Stops and easy entrances, accessible for all, were introduced, together with tactile walks: an overall solution that was conceived to make the information and the maps clear, understandable and usable for all.
Conscious of the importance of the relationship between the product and the environment in which it is used – meant not only as a physical place in which the product will be used but also as a building site – the Marazzi Group has created an ad hoc, open, multi-disciplinary lab, focused on Design For All, in which the different competences and personalities found room for confrontation.
The user, with all his or her characteristics, was thus at the basis for the development of the Autonomy project from the analysis, to the design and finally to the production phase, also including its application within a wider context.


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Autonomy(.pdf)