(February 2012)

The concept is the work of designer Raffaello Galiotto as curator in cooperation with colleague-tradesmen and companies who helped realize the drafts in stone. Natural stone defines the character of many Italian cities and historic places. Designer-magazine Ottagono also participated.

Raffaello Galiotto (Italian)

Sun, Rimini

As was to be expected, communication was one of the central themes of the project. And since communication has a lot to do with commuting, mobility was the centre of focus of many discussions: space for bicycles was developed by designer Roberto Giacomucci in cooperation with StaminalStone.

„Buky“ was the name of one bicycle parking lot – a stout perforated pillar. The bike lock is meant to be threaded through the hole to secure the bike. Another was „Ciottolo“ (Cobblestone) – a metal frame serving at once as a place to lean the bike and an opportunity to interlope the lock.

„Carpet“ was more of a challenge. Five bikes can be parked in the folds of the stone. The objects can be bolted to the ground.

The object was conceived for the town of Senigallia. The material used was Bardiglio Nuvalato marble mined by StaminalStone locally in Carrara. The project was realized by Anzilotti company.

Roberto Giacomucci (Italian)

StaminalStone

Anzilotti

Designer Manolo Bossi’s installation with benches and planters is in keeping with Italian art history: „Romans“ was designed after the Verona’s San Zeno Cathedral. Bossi used Grolla Cream and Grolla Pink marble both polished. Realization was by Marmi Faedo.

Manolo Bossi

Marmi Faedo

„Barena“ by Pio&Tito Toso was an example of nomen est omen. Barene is where land and sea meet in Venice, flooded at high tide and reverting to salt marsh-land with run-offs at low tide.

The designers saw these interesting natural formations mirrored in Venice’s pavement where stone slabs meet mortises. The urban furniture levitates like sandbanks from the beach. The designers conceived cubic benches and trash bins, round lighting elements and fountains as well as indentations for drainage.

The material used was Trachite Euganae found all over Venice. The work was carried out by an enterprise bearing the same name.

Pio&Tito Toso

Trachite Euganea

Freeing stone from its traditional role as a material for brazen monuments and turning it to a material for citizens is the driving idea behind „ZOT“ by architects Pierluigi Molteni, realized in Pietra Serena sandstone for Piazza della Repubblica in the town of Tresigallo.

Molteni’s design is a series of oblong elements in standard sizes which can be combined to chatting corners or can be placed to form a meandering line from one end of the plaza to the other. Steel elements can be integrated to form back rests or little tables or pole-shaped lanterns. Bicycles can find slots in the stone to stabilize their position.

Pierluigi Molteni (Italian)

Il Casone

Designers like to think up dual functions for urban furniture e.g. seating which simultaneously serves as a planter. Diego Chilò conceived a vase („Sengio“) around which citizens can be seated and in the upper rim of which plants can be integrated.

The material used was Pietra di Vicenza often encountered in Vicenza; Renaissance architects have frequently placed their mark there. Peotta Armando produces the rings for the „Vase“ which can be mixed and matched to various heights. The surface treatment was carried out by Ecobeton.

Diego Chilò

Peotta Armando

Ecobeton

Alessandra Pasetti designed „Holywater“ to serve a dual function. Her aim: to design a fountain which doubles as a bench around the outer rim. The water receptacle and the foot of the fountain are designed to allow animals to quench their thirst.

Cobblestone paving reflects a particularity of Isola della Pescharia in Treviso: this is a fish market, so circles in the pavement symbolize water drops.

The designer used Grolla marble with polished and sand blasted surfaces. It has same colour as the houses around the plaza. Also implemented: a black stone. Marmi Faedo realized the project.

Alessandra Pasetti

Marmi Faedo

Another project („Connect chair“) was brought to life by Romolo Stanco and Paver company.

Photos: Companies / Raffaello Galiotto

(February 2012) „In Cava“ (In the Quarry) is the unusual name given to this building – with a history: when stone producer Giovanni Polti inspected his Calanca-gneiss-extraction with architect José Stefanini of JS Studio the tour passed by the quarry refuse. The architect exclaimed „These are exactly the pieces I’ve been looking for“.

The aim of the perambulation through the quarry was to find the design for a new building of the stone company in Roveredo in the Italian part of Swizerland. The architecture should tell visitors much about the material just in passing: that it is mined in big chunk broken out of the bedrock, that much energy is needed to work a piece of the stone, what can be done with it…

So the facade along the main road contains three big chunks of raw stone in the upper two stories. Width and breadth were conceived to reflect the dimension of the raw blocks.

Alfredo Polti Company has three storage rooms on the ground floor. On the first floor three offices are open to business and above them thee apartments were built. The blocks jutting out of the facade make the ground surface of the offices and apartments 1.2 m² larger. Two windows are integrated in the „block“ in the middle.

This type of facade cladding posed a number of challenges. The stone chunks, after all, weigh 40 t (the biggest slab measures 200 cm x 76.7 cm and are 18 cm thick – that’s about 450 kg). The architect developed special anchors whereby the steel for the bracing itself already weighs 4.5 t.

But because thick blocks of stone often give the impression of huge monolithic monsters, the slabs were arranged to support the impression of movement and chaos. A special challenge was posed by rainwater runoff in case of strong rainfall.

So much for the presentation of gneiss in form of raw blocks in this open-air showroom.

All around the building examples of the worked stone can be seen e.g. sawed in the window frames. One side of the building has a 3.2 m high sample surface with 12 types of surface treatment.

And finally, all around the building stone plates and chips can be seen.

In the interior honed gneiss was used for the floor.

Alfredo Polti

JS Studio

Photos: Photo-atelier Franco Mattei / Alfredo Polti

(February 2012)

Data show an increase in Brazil’s natural stone exports in 2011 by +4.22% (by value). Total exports valued at 999.65 million US-$.

With these figures, Brazil has almost caught up after the heavy losses caused by the US-American real-estate crisis. Readers will recall: in January 2007 Brazil could boast taking the magical 1-billon-$-hurdle in 2007 with exports amounting to 1,093 million US-$.

The biggest piece of the export-pie was earmarked for the USA – a problem often subsumed by the consultants as „exporting monoculture“. But the current situation has not improved much in this respect: the biggest portion of exports goes to US-American purchasers of granite slabs.

Similarly, most raw block-exports are destined for China.

Expressed in figures this means that the USA and China alone absorb 60% of stone exports. If one includes Canada and Mexico to the American continent and Taiwan and Hong Kong to Asia, exports total 75% to these 6 countries alone.

But the local Brazilian market is more than interesting what with strong economic growth (+4 %), and a market the size of an average continent preparing for such landmark events as the 2014 FIFA and the 2016 Olympics.

Many a competitor has his eye on this market as well. Imports to Brazil are increasing at a higher average rate than exports from Brazil, namely +32% by value (to a total of 87.89 million US-$). Engineered stone as well has experienced a strong increase: +20.22% by value (to a total of 30.15 million US-$).

Note that imports of raw blocks make up a whopping 20 % (from January until October 2011), meaning that Brazil’s industry has found the means to bring value added turnover back home. Conversely raw blocks make up but a small portion of total exports again keeping value added turnover at home.

The statistics imply that Brazil has invested heavily in state-of-the-art machinery and replacement – an ongoing trend, according to the consultants.

In anticipation of further increases in exports the Brazilian Ministries of Industry and Commerce (MDIC) and Itamaraty are opening chambers world-wide including in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe already under construction. A table shows the planned branch offices among which Khartoum/Sudan, Rabat/Morocco and Cape Town/South Africa as well as Bucharest/Romania and Zagreb/Croatia.

A novel means of securing the market for Brazil’s stone is the initiative by export organization Apex and Abirochas for tagging stone. „Tracing is expected to provide positive resonance“ – as soon as this year.

Informe 01/2012 (Portuguese)

Informe 13/2011 (Portuguese)

Abirochas has recently published a free Portuguese newsletter (order by E-Mail).

(February 2012)

It was probably a long and stony path as might be assumed. Originally stemming from a distant farmyard near the Swiss-German boarder as one of 11 children. His first goal was to master a handicraft trade: and so he took on as a stonemason’s apprentice, was soon recognized as a quick and nimble worker and graduated as master of the trade in Cathedral stonemasonry in his mid twenties in southern Germany. This was, as it seemed, the end of the career line.

But he had simultaneously attended courses at an art academy where, during the work toward his masters’ diploma – a well-meaning teacher gave him a new orientation: „You must study; you’re out of place as a stone mason.“

Since Altenburger had anticipated moving away from southern Germany anyway, he applied at the art academy of Bremen in northern Germany. He was accepted via the special program for especially gifted students.

After 4 years he seemed to have reached the end of the career road once again. But instead of taking his exams he took on for another two years on a European Union scholarship and began to study at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. He was fascinated by the sculptors’ scene in Great Britain and by the way artists handled stone.

He subsequently took his exams in Bremen and finally graduated as a master of art at Chelsea College in London.

Today he profits from the knowledge he gathered as a stone mason as he emphasises. But he does not only use stone for his projects. For some time now he has been interested in working with a combination of material with contrasting properties, e.g. with hard stone and rubber.

He also likes to experiment with surface design: often he has coated white Estremoz-marble from Portugal with red acrylic paint, e.g. in „Close up on pattern“.

Altenburger is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

Ekkehard Altenburger

Photos: Ekkehard Altenburger

Parquet de Versailles is the name given to stone flooring by the Dutch Maximiliano’s Company. The product is reminiscent of weaving and takes up themes in wood.

The planets in our solar system in form of sweets are produced by Rihga Hotel in Osaka. Some of the spheres look like being made of stone.

A „New Product Launch“ will be undertaken at the Xiamen trade fair this year for the first time. It is meant to be a get-together-event where producers and consumers can exchange new ideas.

Stonemasons and stone carvers from Euroe are invited to participate Euopean Stone Festival. In this year, it will take place in Trondheim, Norway from June, 29th to July 1st. The topic for the artists’ works will be „fairy tales”.

The Global Stone Congress will take place from July 16th to 20th in the Portuguese city of Borba in the region of Alentejo. It is an international meeting point for experts of the branch, where the top themes will be discussed. The congress took place in Brazil in 2005, in Italy in 2008 and in Spain in 2010.

Video of the month: hiking tours along steep cliff-side paths – just the thing for people with strong nerves.

(January 2012) Melle in the French Département Deux-Sèvres can boast a possibly unique altar-room. Architect Mathieu Lehanneur raised the altar and pulpit by placing them on a free-standing marble plateau into which the baptismal font is indented.

His aim was to achieve a mystical air: the slab should convey the impression of having preceded the church building as if it had been there all along, from the beginning of time like faith itself. On the other hand the plateau is meant to „reflect the extreme care paid to the telluric energy of stones and territories in the building of Romanesque churches“ according to a press release.

The surface of the podium measures 32 m². The marble slab is 15 mm thick and approx. 50 cm wide where it meets a concrete core to which it is fused.

It was important to avoid contact of the podium with pillars or the church walls thus facilitating Unesco’s approval of the interior design: the church is, after all, one of Unesco’s sites of World Cultural Heritage; the choir, in which the podium was set up, was first constructed in 1090 a.D.

The baptismal font is most unusual for a Christian church – the pool is sunk below floor level.

The marble implemented was of Namibian origin and was sawed in Carrara. Finishing was carried out by the French Brocatelle Company of Lyon. Two more stone types make their mark in the house of God: coloured alabaster for the altar and pulpit, and limestone for the historic walls.

Many a discussion ensued ranging from criticism to pragmatic considerations such as concern that the priest or acolyte could stumble and fall into the font, or that the preacher could take on the appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi straight out of the Star Wars movie on the floating pulpit.

Mathieu Lehanneur

Brocatelle

Photos: Felipe Ribon

Mausolea are generally small buildings recounting the wealth and importance of the family and clan whose final resting place they are meant be and distinguishing it from surrounding tombs. But Portuguese architect Pedro Dias decided to break with tradition when designing the family tomb in Serra do Açor as an open cube inviting mourners, friends and family to step inside during the ceremony and thereafter. The architect verbalises his concept as a „Sepulchral Void“ meaning that the open construction is meant to bring the absence of the deceased to the foreground and make it tangible.

A bench in the middle of the cube plays a central role: during the funeral ceremony it serves as a pedestal for the coffin, later as a place to rest and reflect on the deceased. The passage from life to afterlife is symbolised by the open view over the landscape on the one hand and by the contrasting material used for the inside and outside of the cube on the other. The exterior is made of black granite stripes whereas the interior is clad in broad stainless steel plates.

The tomb is prefabricated in the factory and placed on site by crane. The walls are filled with concrete after they are positioned. The tomb provides place for 8 family members.

Pedro Dias

Photos: Pedro Dias

Grey sandstone from the Italian Apennin mountain range is the dominant material used in Israel’s Domus Galilaeae. The stone was provided by Ill Casone Company and was used for interior flooring and wall cladding. By using just a few sizes of stone slabs the installation emanates an aura of peacefulness where visitors are able to concentrate on the essentials, according to a description.

Contemplation is the core of the Catholic Domus Galilaeae in the Holy Land. It is meant to allow aspiring priests to experience the magic of faith before they are ordained. The complex was constructed above the Sea of Galilee where Jesus performed the miraculous multiplication of bread and fish for his followers, precisely on the peak of Mount of Beatitutes, where Jesus is said to have delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The figures around the circular chapel show Christ with his Apostles.

Il Casone

Domus Galilaeae

Photos: Carlo Marin / Il Casone

(January 2012)

All in all, the vertical picture presents a cacophony of straight and diagonal lines busied by glass and stone surfaces adding extra movement.

The idea was derived from a building by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen in Prague itself, more specifically on Hradschin fortification hill. The Palais Schwarzenberg façade was constructed around 1550. in so called sgraffito style made up of alternating layers of black and white grout revealing a pattern when gouged.

The builders of the palais were attempting to achieve a three-dimensional optical illusion of natural stone. In the case of Amazon Court, on the other hand, the stone is real Star White granite, albeit serving decorative purposes only.

The building is part of Prague’s new River City complex and stands in close proximity upstream of the famous Karl’s Bridge on the banks of the Vltava. The complex is comprised mostly of office buildings interspersed with shops, restaurants, hotels, and dwellings to maintain a lively atmosphere outside office hours as well.

The Amazon Court Atrium deserves special attention. It is open to the public around the clock and provides an optical sequence to the façade pattern. The glass surfaces of the 7 story element are decorated in trapezoids albeit in textile form and in bold colours. Danish artist Anne Marie Plough wanted to lend flair of tropical rain forest.

The flooring is paved in marble tiles in one section. In another, small cobblestones, as are often seen in the lanes of the historic city centre, cover the walking surface.

The architects placed great importance in sustainability of the building. Special glass was used allowing maximum sunlight penetration but little heat accumulation. With a series of other implementations aimed at energy conservation Amazon Court is meant to use 50% less energy than standard office complexes and save 65% of costs. The complex was commissioned by Europolis.

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

River City Prague

Europolis 

Photos/Drafts: Adam Mørk / Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

(January 2012)

Recent diving expeditions proved that the concept worked to plan: algae, molluscs and small crabs have already moved in making the reef their new home.

The Sylt outer reef, an area 65 km off the coast of the island of Sylt is, in fact, a marine reserve. But despite its status, the fishing and trawling industry continue to systematically destroy the natural habitat of marine wildlife in the area. The natural reef was destroyed bit by bit.

The original natural reef was made up of boulders and rocks pushed along before a glacier’s path during the ice-age. The mass ceased to move as the glacier melted and was occupied little by little by marine life, providing a home and hiding place for a wide variety of wildlife.

It was Greenpeace’s aim to reconstruct a part of the reef by dropping 320 natural stone blocks and boulders into the sea where they came to rest at a depth of 30 m.

Greenpeace (German)

Video (German)

(January 2012)

But the project has a history.

A limestone cliff in the county of Yorkshire was home to an ancient mill propelled by a stream running along the cliffs foot. The cliff formed the back wall of the mill. The four-story building found a – shall we say: eccentric – new owner a few years ago who fell in love with the old building and invested a lot of money and time in modernising it.

During the course of refurbishment the stone wall in the newly created swimming pool room was supposed to be smoothed and straightened, when the mill’s owner suddenly stopped the work; the mighty spur, which should have been levelled, reminded him of an elephant. He decided that the mill should be it’s permanent home.

And that’s how things remained for some time. There was, after all, no-one available to coax the elephant out of it’s hiding place in the rock.

Citizens of Yorkshire began to talk and finally stonemason Oliver Hurst was at the centre of discussions. He drew a few lines on the spur („Later the concept was changed completely“, recounts Hurst) and that was enough for the landlord. After all, Hurst also saw the elephant hidden in the rock.

And so the artist began his work. The main challenge was not the details of the shape, as one might think, but rather working the stone on site in its natural state. „Extremely hard layers lay side by side very soft, porous strata“, says Hurst, „I had to take great care with every blow of the hammer.“

The work took 12 months to complete during the course of which Hurst says „I often considered how to patch small glitches with resin in case of an accident“, he admits. But: „all went well.“

Unfortunately the landlord passed away in the meantime. The family gave the go-ahead to complete the project – not least as a sign of respect for the deceased. But the baby elephant, which the artist also saw in the rock, was not realized.

Hurst had a plaque mounted: „Vir Magnus in Memoriam“ it reads, or translated: „in memory of a great man“ signed by Hurst in sandstone. The tusks are made of fibreglass.

Oliver Hurst

Photos: Oliver Hurst

The European Cemeteries route plots its path along cemeteries across 20 countries.

Plates made of petrified wood are on sale by British Stonefish Company.

„Building in wood“ was one of the themes at this year’s Big5 seminar program at Dubai’s trade fair. The lecture was held by a representative of the Timber Academy.

A volcano on the ocean floor before the Atlantic island of El Hierro has taken up activity again. A Swiss webpage shows active volcanoes around the world live via live cams.

The Santiago de Chile international airport is being modernised and refurbished. It will also receive an annex building (Spanish) .

BuiltInt Kenya 2012 is a building fair from March 31st to April 2nd in Nairobi.

Clandestine sandstone quarries have been in progress around the Polish town of Łysina in Silesia. The authorities have already threatened to penalize the perpetrators acceding to a press release (Polish). But the towns merely shrug and ask: sandstone, here? We know of nothing of the sort, and if anyone is quarrying sandstone then merely for private use…