Barcelona City Council initiated testing of the new 21st century ‘panot’ by installing three tile models with sustainable and innovative properties that are competing to become the city’s new iconic paving.

The three tiles, designed by Breinco, Escofet and Constraula, from the Sorigué group, were the winners of the contest launched by the city council through Fundació BIT Hàbitat last year.

In order to evaluate their performance and capacity to respond to environmental challenges, they will be tested over the course of a year on a surface area of 2,500 square metres at the green axis of Carrer dels Almogàvers, in the district of Sant Martí.

The new tile maintains the characteristic floral design but also incorporates innovative properties with the aim of contributing towards a more sustainable city. They were thus produced according to new environmental criteria, without compromising the functionality required for high levels of foot traffic.

“To update the 20th century panot, we need to make it more sustainable, incorporate more innovative techniques and use recycled materials. The goal is to install the new panot throughout the city”, declared the first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, during the presentation of the proposals on 17 October.

The evaluation will assess the tiles’ resistance, degree of breakage, acoustic performance, slippage, abrasion damage, colour stability, reflectance index, durability, water filtration and ease of cleaning.

PANOT+, the proposal from Sorigué

Under the name PANOT+, Constraula, a company from the Sorigué group, proposed a less bulky tile with a thickness reduced by 25%, without losing any of its required qualities. The manufacture process is much more sustainable thanks to the use of rainwater and the incorporation of self-consumption electricity techniques.

Over 30% of the materials used in PANOT+ are recycled aggregates from demolitions in the province of Barcelona and less cement is used per square metre of paving, which reduces the impact of CO₂ emissions in the public space by up to 43%.

This tile will also reduce environmental pollution in the city through the photocatalytic and self-cleaning properties of the titanium oxide added to the surface of the tiles.