Carreaux de Beyrouth

Beirut's old apartments stand on carpets of patterned cement tile, and this Mar Mikhael workshop still makes them one at a time: mineral pigment poured into brass moulds, pressed hydraulically, cured in water — never kiln-fired, which is the whole secret of their depth.

The pattern archive goes back a century, rescued from a closing tile house after the port blast. Orders are cast to pattern and batch-dated; a floor from this workshop is meant to be walked on for eighty years.