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A Terrazzo Floor at ISSA Resort Wins the 2026 NTMA Judges Choice

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A Terrazzo Floor at ISSA Resort Wins the 2026 NTMA Judges Choice

by Metropolis Staff

The terrazzo floor of the Charm Ballroom gathers gray in graded increments, moving from its palest values to its deepest. Brass divider strips mark the boundary between one tone and the next, describing a figure that holds its definition at the far end of the hall. Overhead, thousands of programmable LED glass tubes hang within a monumental metal armature, and their arrangement falls directly over the pattern below. They move through their sequences, and the atmosphere shifts with them.

Courtesy of NTMA.

The room is the event venue of ISSA Resort, a five-star property in Turda, in the Transylvania region, and it accommodates up to 800 guests. The suspended fixture is said to rank among the largest chandeliers in the world. Interiors are the work of Twins Studio, a Bucharest firm led by Mihai Popescu.

Courtesy of NTMA.

Executing the floor fell to Aragon Grup, a terrazzo and resin flooring contractor founded in 1999, whose work in the ballroom earned the 2026 Judges Choice International Award from the National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association, presented on May 13 at its annual convention. Aragon Grup joined the NTMA in 2020 as the first member based outside North America, and the distinction is the seventh the company has received from the organization.

Courtesy of NTMA.

The surface is epoxy terrazzo, applied by hand. Marble aggregates quarried in Italy and Greece, blended at standard and larger sizes, are set into the binder and ground to a polish. The variation lends the field a depth that a single grade would not carry. “The terrazzo floor extends the hall’s geometry onto the horizontal plane, its precise pattern echoing the rhythm of the vertical lines above,” said Mihai Popescu of Twins Studio. “Design elements and textures are intentionally oversized — scaled to hold their ground against the hall’s proportions. Each element, though precious and elegant, retains a deliberate simplicity that doesn’t impose, leaving room for adaptation. From solemn to celebratory, from intimate to spectacular, the hall can transform effortlessly according to the nature of the event it hosts.”

Courtesy of NTMA.

Aragon Grup laid the floor over 60 continuous days. The same epoxy color and aggregate blends reappear in the lobby and restrooms, where unground precast stone carpet panels clad the walls, carrying the material through the arrival sequence and into the ballroom itself. The two firms have worked together since 2019, most notably at Tuya Restaurant in Vienna, where Aragon Grup received a 2021 NTMA Honor Award for its terrazzo and the project was shortlisted in three categories at the London Restaurant and Bar Design Awards. Twins Studio had won the Outside category at the 2015 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards for Biutiful by the Lake.

Courtesy of NTMA.

The NTMA Honor Awards recognize outstanding terrazzo installations completed by member contractors, judged on design achievement, craftsmanship, and technical execution. A full list of 2026 recipients is available at ntma.com.