Commercial and industrial buildings
There is an enormous variety of commercial and industrial buildings, all requiring very different architectural and interior design approaches: sports facilities, large commercial premises, airports and railway stations, hospitals and laboratories, places of worship, education centres and buildings for all kinds of industrial activity.
Until just a few years ago the meagre offering of suitable products meant that there was no ceramic to be found in such buildings. Having discovered a wealth of non-vitrified, extruded and pressed stoneware tiles, including the so-called porcelain stoneware tiles, architecture has now reverted to using ceramic coverings. Vitrified stoneware tiles are also available manufactured to specifications that make them suitable for very heavy use. The scope they offer to mix and match colours and formats leaves the door wide open to creative interior design.

When undertaking a project, every facet of the building's intended use and purpose should be studied and borne in mind.
The common denominator of all these buildings is that they will all be subjected to high traffic and intense activity. With this comes high or very high exposure to mechanical, physical and chemical action and/or agents.

On the whole high or very high intensity mechanical action is to be expected, together with the likelihood of impact, exposure to heavy static loads and heavy loads being rolled around - all of this on large, continuous surfaces. On occasion, therefore, tiles will need to be selected that are thicker than are the norm in other environments.

Surface mechanical action will in any event be intense because of exposure to abrasion (at its highest when the tiles are sited next to an outdoor area). This is caused not merely by diverse forms of high traffic but also by the methods of industrial cleaning normally used in such places.
Chemical and cleaning products vary and exposure to them will be more or less intense depending on the location of the tile installation. It is advisable therefore to select tiles with the highest level of resistance to this type of product. Chemical, pharmaceutical and dairy industries in particular require ceramic coverings to resist any chemical agents that may foreseeably be used on the premises.

Exterior paving in residential construction
Ceramic has, to varying degrees, always been a feature of single family domestic architecture. On occasion it has been used for skirting and garden ornamentation, whilst at other times it has been relegated to being used for exterior paving (normally using non-vitrified rustic tiles) and terraces, where the tendency has been to use Catalan tiles, often in combination with inserts.
This scenario was enriched by the appearance of high specification vitrified and non-vitrified stoneware tiles as these are stain and frost resistant and are not susceptible to humidity-induced mould.

When selecting this type of exterior tile it is important to bear in mind the mechanical action to which they will be subjected, whether it will be high or very high intensity, integral (dynamic loads and impacts) or superficial (abrasive materials being dragged over). Although the level of chemical action can be low or moderate, it is important to ensure that the tiles can be easily cleaned and that they are resistant to the kind of products normally used for the job. Where there is a risk of exposure to low temperatures it is essential that the tiles be frost-resistant. Finally, in rainy places or locations where there is water about, any tiles used should be slip-resistant.

Non-residential interior spaces
Half way between residential spaces subjected to heavy use and industrial buildings there is a wide range of public places where ceramic coverings were first used because of their functionality and the need for surfaces to be easy to clean and hygienic. In the last few decades of the 19th century ceramic began to appear in restaurants, bars, dairies, butchers' shops and fishmongers' as well as in medical, pharmaceutical and public health establishments. Later, ceramic began to appear in places where decoration was valued above functionality, a development that reached its apogee in modernist architecture. Afterwards, the use of ceramic in such settings declined, eventually ceased altogether or reverted once more to a purely functional application, and then only as a wall covering as it was replaced by other materials for covering floors.

At the beginning of the 1990's the situation began to change as ceramic products began to be manufactured with the right specifications for such usage and a much broader aesthetic appeal. It is quite normal today to see ceramic flooring in commercial premises, bars and restaurants and tiles on their walls too.
Generally speaking, mechanical action in such environments will range from intense to very intense and in some cases there will be high levels of chemical action. Frost- and slip-resistance are important features to bear in mind when selecting tiles for cold stores. ndeed, slip-resistance is critical for fishmongers' shops too, and in fact for any establishment where liquids are likely to be spilled.
In planning the interior design of shops and other medium-traffic environments where the decorative element is particularly important, thought should be given to the level of surface mechanical action the flooring is likely to be subjected to. This is especially relevant to the areas where traffic will be highest and exposure to abrasion will be greatest (e.g. access to and the space immediately in front of payment points in shops). Tiles selected for such areas should offer the highest possible levels of abrasion resistance.