Mosaic: modern technologies make the medium accessible
Mosaic is an image made of small inlaid pieces of tile, called “Tessera”. First developed by the Greeks and Romans around the 4th century B.C., mosaic is a timeless art form with contemporary applications. Until recently, mosaic has suffered from prohibitive costs, long lead times, and design complexities – particularly for large scale or high volume commercial property development.
Lately the mosaic medium has become far more accessible, making it an option worth considering for commercial and residential applications. Four main contributing factors have brought this about, to the benefit of developers, architects, designers and builders.
First, a competitive global supply chain makes high quality tile – in ceramic, glass, stone and other exotic materials – readily available. The benefit to buyers is increased variety, lower costs, shorter lead times, and multiple redundant suppliers.
Technology has also changed the industry, which now has access to computer aided design methods and robotic manufacturing processes. Today architects use Computer Aided Design (CAD) to design buildings, builders fabricate building components using Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), and components are shipped onsite for bolt‐together assembly. Similarly it is now possible to design your mosaic on a computer, manufacture it by robot, and have a “pre‐fabbed” mosaic installed in one‐tenth the time and half the cost.
Modern mosaic companies currently operate as efficient design/build firms. Project quotations can be generated in near real‐time, accompanied by short lead times on design concepts and materials samples. Projects are delivered under contract
reliably and within time & budget constraints. Lifetime libraries of your design enable guaranteed color matched repairs forever.
Finally, tile has always been an extremely sustainable surface finish. For over 3,000 years tile has been selected as a high‐end, artistic surface finish for its low strain on natural resources, its durability, and ease of cleaning. In fact, Tile Council of North America’s analysis of the primary surface finish options ranks tile as the most cost effective and sustainable option over the life cycle of a building. Tile contributes significantly to LEED 2009 building certification.
Tile mosaic is now more accessible than ever. Affordable high quality tile, efficient design & production technologies, reliable firms and sustainability all make mosaic worth considering in your next project.
Author’s bio
Ted Acworth, Founder and CEO
Dr. Ted Acworth is a scientist and engineer by trade, as well as an award-winning entrepreneur. He has been developing and commercializing innovative technology for twenty years. With a deep appreciation for the art of mosaic, he founded Artaic in 2007. Artaic is developing unique design and production technology that aims to revolutionize the industry.
The core of Dr. Acworth’s technical expertise is ultra precision metrology systems design. Throughout his career, he has also developed expertise in management of research and development, and technology commercialization. Combined, his work in these areas has been sought by companies, universities and governments in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Ted holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MS and BS from Columbia University.
Dr. Acworth lives with his wife and son in Boston’s Beacon Hill.
