Imagine walking into a sleek lobby: porcelain floors, clean sightlines, carefully chosen lighting – and yet, people with vision loss can move confidently, feeling subtle cues underfoot that guide and protect them. That balance between visual elegance and tactile safety is exactly what Elan Porcelain Tactile Tiles are designed to deliver.
For Canadian contractors, building owners, facility managers, and landscape designers, the question isn’t just “How do I comply with AODA, CSA, ISO, and National Building Code requirements?” It’s “Can I do it beautifully, without turning my commercial space into a patchwork of safety add‑ons?” Elan Tactile Tile is essentially built around that tension: high‑end porcelain aesthetics paired with fully code‑compliant Tactile Walking Surface Indicators (TWSIs) for both warning and wayfinding.
In many commercial projects, safety features have traditionally looked like afterthoughts: bright plastic plates, clashing colours, or industrial textures slapped onto finished floors. That creates three common pain points:
Elan Porcelain Tactile Tiles bridge that gap by starting from a design‑first premise and then layering in performance and code compliance, rather than the other way around.
Elan Tile is positioned as a premium porcelain tactile solution chosen by professionals who design and construct high‑end commercial, institutional, and public environments across Canada. It goes beyond basic ceramic quality and far exceeds the EN 14411 standard, earning the designation of “Porcelain Stoneware,” which points to its density, hardness, and durability.
Within the Elan line, there are two key TWSI formats you’ll be working with in commercial projects:
Both are designed for style and engineered for performance: certified porcelain stoneware, full‑body porcelain with a highly compact surface, extremely low water absorption, and a robust R11 slip‑resistant finish suitable for high‑traffic areas. They are fully Canadian accessibility code‑compliant and integrate smoothly into both new builds and upgrades.
The Elan Porcelain Attention Domes are the quiet “bodyguards” of your floor – subtle enough to blend in, precise enough to clearly warn pedestrians, especially those with vision loss. They consist of truncated domes that act as tactile warning surface indicators, alerting users to a change in elevation or a hazardous edge.
Typical applications include:
From a specification perspective, each 12" x 12" tile covers 1 square foot, with pricing starting from $27.53 per square foot and boxes containing 8 tiles (8 square feet). This makes it straightforward to estimate coverage and cost on drawings and tender packages.
The key advantage for designers is that the Elan truncated domes do not look like “bolt‑on safety gadgets.” They are part of a continuous porcelain field, allowing you to create defined hazard zones that sit comfortably within the overall floor palette.
If attention domes are the bodyguards, Elan Porcelain Wayfinding Bars are the “tactile GPS” of your building. These directional tactile walking surface indicators are laid in linear patterns to form a continuous path that people with vision loss can follow using their feet or a cane.
They are particularly effective in:
Typical wayfinding paths with Elan bars are designed to lead users to:
Elan Wayfinding Bar tiles share the same specifications as the attention domes: 12" x 12", 1 square foot per tile, from $27.53 per square foot, 8 tiles per box. The identical format simplifies layout planning and ordering, while the tactile pattern differentiates route guidance from hazard warnings.
Picture a busy downtown Toronto office tower prepping for a major tenant move‑in. The lobby boasts porcelain floors, a sculptural reception desk, and floor‑to‑ceiling glazing looking out onto a plaza with a shallow reflecting pool.
During the final walk‑through, the building owner and property manager realize two things:
Ripping up the porcelain floor was not an option, nor was installing bright plastic tactile plates that would jar against the carefully curated design. The solution: Elan Porcelain Attention Domes along the reflecting pool edge and at the top of the interior stair, paired with Elan Wayfinding Bars leading from the main doors to reception, the elevator bank, and the central escalators.
The result wasn’t just compliance with Canadian accessibility requirements; it was a lobby that looked even more deliberately designed. The subtle texture changes and thoughtfully laid paths made navigation feel intuitive to everyone, not just people with visual impairments. The owner didn’t lose the high‑end aesthetic they invested in – they gained a more inclusive, future‑proof asset.
Beyond aesthetics, Elan Porcelain Tactile Tiles are engineered for the realities of Canadian commercial environments:
Maximum durability and surface hardness suitable for busy public buildings, retail spaces, and transit facilities.
Extremely low absorbency, meaning the tiles are not affected by stains, water, or typical chemicals used in cleaning and maintenance.
Exceptional resistance to thermal shock, deep abrasions, and frost, supporting both interior and (where specified) exterior applications in challenging climates.
A high‑performance surface finish that meets demanding slip‑resistance requirements for high traffic areas, improving safety not just for people with vision loss but for everyone.
Suitable for a variety of interior environments, with field tiles available in different sizes, allowing designers to integrate tactile zones into broader porcelain layouts.
A 5‑year manufacturer’s warranty adds confidence for owners, specifiers, and contractors.
With a palette of colours like Cultured Grey, Vogue Black, and Sand Stone, you can coordinate tactile fields with the rest of your flooring design – either blending subtly or creating elegant, intentional contrast.
Before choosing a tactile system, it helps to answer a few simple questions for your project:
Are you working on an existing finished surface or planning a new slab/finish?
Do you need tactile attention indicators to mark a danger, or wayfinding bars to guide users along a safe path – or both?
High‑traffic retail? Transit concourse? Office lobby? Institutional corridor? The usage and traffic patterns can influence layout, colours, and spacing.
Once you know whether you’re signalling a hazard or defining a route, and whether you’re working over an existing surface or within a new design, it becomes straightforward to select between Elan Porcelain Attention Domes and Elan Wayfinding Bars (or a combination of the two) and define quantities, colours, and layouts.
In a word: yes. With Elan Porcelain Attention Domes and Wayfinding Bars, you don’t have to choose between a polished, design‑driven commercial environment and a safe, code‑compliant space for people with vision loss and other users.
If your next project needs to look exceptional and perform flawlessly, Elan Tactile Tiles are one of those rare details where style and safety genuinely walk hand in hand. Talk with us at Tactile Solution Canada now to get a free quote and expert guidance for your project.
