CTX BasicKeramik® RES Calacatta belongs to the ROSSITTIS house brand CTX BasicKeramik® — a porcelain line of our own conception that we develop together with selected Italian premium ceramics manufacturers and offer under our own brand name. The “RES” marking in the design name identifies the upstream manufacturer — the designs of the RES range are produced at a tradition-rich Italian porcelain producer and further processed for CTX BasicKeramik® with our own fabrication options, thicknesses and supply terms. CTX BasicKeramik® stands in the same house brand family as our CTX BasicQuarz® (engineered quartz) and complements the ROSSITTIS range with a curated, competitively calculated porcelain product line.
The design model — Calacatta — is among the most iconic marbles in architectural history. Genuine Calacatta marble comes from the Apuan Alps around Carrara (Tuscany, Italy), from the same deposits as Bianco Carrara, Statuario, Calacatta Vagli, Calacatta Borghini and the other historical premium marbles of Italy. Geologically it is a recrystallised carbonate metamorphic rock that formed from Mesozoic platform limestones under tectonic pressure and temperature loading. Characteristic are the pure, almost crystalline pale white ground tone and the dramatically fluid grey to warm grey veins, which arose from secondary calcitic and ferro-mineral mineralisations along the original fracture geometry. Calacatta is among the most expensive and, in design terms, most sought-after marbles in the world — the material of sacred buildings, sculptures and prestige architecture since antiquity.
In the slab picture, CTX BasicKeramik® RES Calacatta shows an authentic reproduction of this premium marble character: an almost crystalline, pure white ground tone — cooler and more brilliant than with warm creamy beige marbles — across which dramatically fluid grey main veins run. The vein pattern is not rigidly linear but looks organically flowing, with branching, sometimes powerfully diagonal axes of movement. In the vein zones, accents of depth in a darker anthracite grey are recognisable, giving the vein pattern a tactile, spatial depth of effect. The picture evokes the fluid, powerfully organic vein structure of rare Italian Calacatta marbles, technically without their natural stone risks.
It is precisely this combination that is the design strength of the material: the iconic Calacatta picture of the Italian premium marble tradition in a technically consistently designed porcelain quality. Anyone who wants to make the luxurious Calacatta statement in modern residential or contract architecture without accepting the care requirements, acid sensitivity, block-to-block variation and price peaks of genuine Calacatta marbles will find a distinctly sensible alternative in the porcelain reproduction.
Technically it is a fully sintered large-format porcelain, manufactured by the classic high-pressure, high-temperature sintering process: mineral raw materials (natural clays, feldspars, quartzes and pigments) are pressed under high pressure into a large-format slab and sintered at temperatures above 1,200 °C. The result is a chemically non-reactive, almost pore-free ceramic material with a water absorption of < 0.1 %. The material properties are those of the premium porcelain class: full UV stability (approved for exterior applications), acid resistance (wine, lemon and vinegar leave no etch marks — unlike genuine Calacatta!), heat resistance (hot pans can be set down directly), scratch resistance (Mohs hardness 7–8), frost resistance and food safety.
In direct comparison with genuine Calacatta marble, RES Calacatta offers concrete advantages: full acid resistance (genuine Calacatta, as a carbonate marble, is extremely acid-sensitive — lemon juice, wine and tomato sauce leave matt etch marks immediately), no impregnation cycles, a precisely reproducible look (genuine Calacatta varies strongly from block to block), full heat resistance (genuine marble is thermally sensitive), scratch resistance (genuine Calacatta is prone to scratching) and suitability for exterior use. Anyone who wants the iconic Calacatta look in an everyday-fit, carefree quality is therefore clearly better served by the porcelain reproduction — especially for intensively used kitchen worktops, bathrooms with frequent acid contact and exterior applications.
At ROSSITTIS we currently carry CTX BasicKeramik® RES Calacatta as 22 large-format slabs in 12 mm thickness with a naturale matt finish — the standard treatment for marble-look porcelain, which gives the look its authentically matt, natural-stone-like character without the high-gloss effect of a polished marble. On request we produce from them kitchen worktops, islands, vanity tops, bathroom wall claddings, floor and wall tiles, outdoor kitchen counters, pool surrounds, table surfaces and project-specific bespoke cuts.
For anyone comparing RES Calacatta with other materials: the stylistic model is genuine Calacatta from the Apuan Alps — geologically authentic and unique, but expensive, acid-sensitive, with all the care requirements of natural stone. Among the porcelain competition, Laminam Cristallo Statuario, Lioli Porcelain Calacatta versions, the Florim Calacatta look and Caesarstone 5xxx Lioli Supernatural offer similar designs, each with its own aesthetic accents. Among the polyester engineered quartz materials, Caesarstone 5143 White Attica ICON, Silestone Calacatta Gold, Compac and Diresco Calacatta designs offer comparable marble looks — with limited heat resistance and absent UV stability.
Our honest assessment: CTX BasicKeramik® RES Calacatta is a distinctly successful choice for projects that want to combine the iconic Italian Calacatta picture with the full robustness of porcelain and the economically attractive calculation of a ROSSITTIS house brand. Anyone looking for maximum geological authenticity should reach for genuine Calacatta marble — and accept the corresponding care and price implications. But anyone who wants the luxurious marble statement in an easy-care, heat- and acid-resistant quality available in the 1,200 × 3,000 mm large format will find a particularly convincing solution here.
