It Takes a Team: How to Design for Terrazzo

NTMA: Describe the players that are on the team for a terrazzo project.

Ambriz: I appreciate all the artisans involved, well beyond the contractor—who are also artisans, not installers! With a theme-centered design, I have to research to make sure it can be built in a floor.

At the John Caretti Co., one invaluable asset they have for a designer is their library: a room with walls and walls displaying samples of past projects. You can see what you think is successful and why. Working with a client, I use these samples to develop the concept.

Material suppliers also contribute significantly to the project. I can call the glass company or aggregate supplier and say, ‘I’m looking for this,’ or ‘I have this problem; what do you think?’ They help me find the right colors.

I also work with epoxy suppliers to create colors. Pigments aren’t like CMYK or RBG. It’s another language to learn to communicate. The epoxy suppliers know what causes a powdery effect, when to change the fillers, how to use more than one color. Looking at the Franklin Park project, there were so many colors; it could’ve turned into a mess.

On the Northwestern University J Wing, we used only eight colors: white, beiges, and three tones of blue. But we needed more samples to narrow down that selection than we did on Franklin Park, with its 38 colors. It’s much more challenging to achieve subtle transitions than distinct colors. In such subtle distinctions, the choice of aggregates has an enormous impact.

To produce the final art for a project, I also contact the divider strip supplier to ask, ‘How do we build this?’ and if what I want to do is possible. They recommend the best way to proceed based on the design. The strips can either be waterjet cut or formed by hand, or the supplier can put the design on a form for you that can be dropped in place onsite.

Everyone is involved. The Caretti Co. has an incredible resource in their offices: a person who reviews all the formulas. I have found her contribution to a project to be tremendously valuable, especially as designs become more complex. I always tell them how great she is. She spots potential problems and prevents mistakes. She knows all the formulas and manages an archive; it’s like the Dewey decimal system of terrazzo formulas.

If I look at an aggregate and decide on a certain percentage of 1s and 0s, for example, and submit mixes for samples, she may come back and advise me to rethink because the aggregates are running large. That would be a huge surprise; there’s a visible difference between the sizes. If they are large, I need to know. If a marble is running orange, that could be a disaster. Those are big mistakes. Nuances make a big difference.

Terrazzo designers who want to push the envelope and achieve the best result must rely on the team to learn all they need to know to reach their goal. ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’—it may be corny, but I live by it. I don’t know everything. The team makes it happen.