Global Stone Congress, March, 2nd – 5th, in Alicante, Spain

Program

Deadline for registration is February, 23rd.

(February 2010) Global Stone Congress will be a forum of communication in innovation between the industry of the Natural Stone, architecture, technology and applied science. This is an excellent opportunity to put together specialists in different areas of knowledge to evaluate the new technological improvements and the market situation, as well as to plan new strategies for the commercialisation and suggest new trends in Natural Stone.

Natural stone has an important peculiarity in architecture. Stone is a solid construction material which is extracted from the nature and is placed in our habitat without suffering any alteration. It is part of the nature and so human beings identify it as capable of creating a comfortable environment that only natural materials can offer. This makes natural stone an always appreciated material that is considered essential for a healthy environment, as part of our natural habitat.

It is a unique material with a unique market. Contrarily to other construction materials, stone depends on the availability of natural resources and the necessary technology to work on them according to the corresponding technical specifications.

There is a wide range of colours and textures, as well as a great variety of possibilities in new architectural solutions, finishes, furniture, distribution facilities, availability, service, dimensions, durability and restoration works. It is a unique sector whose strategies differ from the standard, where variations are the common standard, a sector that offers nature and functionality.

Architecture has introduced a new concept in stone: nobility and beauty of ageing in contrast to immobilism. The natural stone covering of a building brings it to life; it creates a living building that changes slightly as time passes by but preserves their basic properties. All of these new concepts constitute an application framework for new trends in stone architecture.

Events about technological progress and use of natural stone

Advances in use of natural stone depend on technological progress. Stone will be used as long as technology can create new properties in its application. This has been the use of stone in the history of humanity; from prehistory up to the present stone has been utilized according to the possibilities provided by technology, resulting in historical milestones in civilization.

Many examples of these technological progresses can be found from the Stone Age up to present. In the industrial period one of the more relevant technological milestones was the use of gang saws that introduced the extensive use of the stone in plane format of big dimensions. When this technology was developed, the selling in natural stone used for singular buildings produced an important milestone in the beginning of the 30’s. The introduction of diamond wire was, probably, the more relevant improvement in the extractive industry, providing a wide extraction ratio in the quarries and introducing new materials in the market at a more affordable cost.

With the introduction of diamond wire in quarries and new low cost gang the sale of plane format was extended to residential architecture and use of stone became popular.

This fact coincided in the 80’s with a spectacular increase in the sale and use of stone, obviously helped by other auxiliary technology.

In the last years new formats and new extractive facilities have enable a very wide use of stone, not only in singular buildings but also in residential ones.

The treatment of stone with resins, waterproof chemicals and glazers has provided relevance to the use of natural stone in new applications, opening consequently new markets.

A congress in a global financial crisis period

The last year’s economical convulsion in the international markets has been one of the worst in history. The current situation of investment is affecting the whole production line of stone and especially the construction sector. The interruption in the demand of construction materials has affected dramatically the stone industry and has moderated the impressive rising experienced by the sector over the last years. We need to consider that this increase had been of a 370% in the last 20 years and this current period involves new changes in the strategy of the Natural Stone industry.

Some of these significant changes are oriented towards market analysis, a dynamic adjustment demand and supply, new architectural solutions, new services and assistance in application of stone in buildings, new extractive and processing technologies and the global market.

The financial convulsions of the sector are producing deep changes in the conceptualization of production, as well as in use and market strategy. All the innovation that can be done must be covered in a discussion forum. The Global Stone Congress 2010 will be a privileged scenario to discuss the innovative strategies and to evaluate the trends in the natural stone market using technology, new architectural solutions and new products, treatments and uses.

The crisis in use involve many important facts, such as the role of the new emerging countries, the technology market, the new concepts of environment  and conservation, as well as the sustainability of the stone and the leading role that the stone can play in this field.

Natural stone will be used more often as it will be adapted to the new solutions in architecture, it will enjoy a more flexible mechanism of extraction, increasing productivity ratios and guaranteeing a positive behaviour in construction.

The strategies in technology and use will be the basis for a New Stone Age, caused by the fact that new generations of citizens request a more natural environment in their lives.

The Global Stone Congress 2010 will be divided in several modules to present the contributions in topic sessions with key speakers, special workshops and round tables for discussion. The main topics are as follows:

Exploration and Quarrying, including new technologies, reservoir modelling, new geophysical techniques applied to natural stone exploration and trends in the dimensioning of the extracted materials.

Processing of Natural Stone and New Machinery for materials. This topic will introduce new tools and technologies as in processing as a key to production efficiency and new treatments for the new products.

New Materials, Architectural Solutions and Standardisation. Quality regulations, new characterization methodologies and material processing will be part of the contributions in this topic. The controversy between the pure natural stone and the technologically treated natural stone as two of the main trends in products will be also discussed. The “natural stone as it is” in contrast to the “new materials based on natural stone” offer a wider variety in the use and application of natural stone.

Other important topic is the new standard and the new regulation for the global stone market and the relevance of the characterization and normative for behaviour of the stone for its application.

Architecture and Natural Stone. Architecture is the link between producers and users, as well as between technology and the habitat and quality of life that the stone can offer. The architecture is demanding new solutions, new materials capable to preserve the stone benefits with new properties and the expected behaviour of the stone with the passage of time. The new materials, finishes and properties can offer new solutions, applications and combinations according to the technical requirements and the new possibilities of stone.

Environmental Challenges, as a key issue in nature preservation for a rational exploitation of the natural resources and its sustainable use in benefit of humanity. Legal framework, methodologies, impact minimization and main strategies are some of the main contributions that will be presented and discussed.

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