True monolithic piece...

Segregated Monoliths is a final student project by Alex Phi, done at Sci-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in Los Angeles, California. The design investigates monolithic structure in its solidity. True monolithic piece of architecture is unbroken, rigid, invulnerable, a whole, large and unified with no recognizable parts. The research deals with displacing and dislodging both formal and organizational aspects of a building while retaining a sense of wholeness.
http://www.evolo.us/architecture/segregated-monoliths-is-an-investigation-on-monolithic-structures-in-contemporary-architecture/

Eternity in Mostar

Eternity had only been interrupted. The Old Bridge in Mostar, which had been constructed in 1556, rose from the ashes in July 2004. This symbol for the bond between peoples and religions had been built under the assumption of everlastingness, but became a victim of the Bosnian war in 1993. This monument, which is also important regarding its architecture, was rebuilt under the direction of the UNESCO with the participation of the LGA (Regional Industrial Association) of Nuremberg (Germany)

http://www.litosonline.com/en/articles/en/80/old-bridge-mostar-reconstruction-symbol

Nature in a Shelter

Natural stone, the durable alternative“ („La pierre, l’alternative performante“) was the title of a competition for young architects called out by La Pierre de France Company in cooperation with trade magazine Pierre Actual. The aim was to design shelters for public transportation while testing novel means of implementing natural stone.

http://www.stone-ideas.com/2013/10/27/competition-to-promote-frances-new-generation-in-natural-stone-as-a-durable-alternative/

To manage a Project

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables),undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management

 

Carved Humanity

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Canada, designed by Antoine Predock Architects, is carved into the earth while dissolving into the sky on the Winnipeg horizon The design concept is rooted in humanity, and is a metaphor of the fundamental commonality of humankind – a symbolic apparition of ice, clouds and stone, set on the ground.
The museum journey is actually the epic journey through life. Visitors enter the building between the Roots – protective stone arms, suggesting an ancient geological event. As they are containing the important public interface functions of the museum, the Roots create a framework for outdoor ceremonies with roof terraces and amphitheater seating.http://www.evolo.us/architecture/canadian-museum-for-human-rights-in-winnipeg-canada/

We are drawn by desire...

 
Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.
These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire - a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.

Edward Burtynsky

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/site_contents/About/introAbout.html

Alabasters...

The materials commercially known as Onyx are scientifically known as alabasters (or calcium alabasters) formed by deposits of calcium carbonate in water rich in bicarbonate, generally in cavities in solids of limestone stone. (...)

The term onyx (which came from the Greek term which means “nail”) refers to two different types of rocks: the first is calcium onyx, object of the current article, and the second is a crypto-crystalline variety of quartz. (...)

Both technical as well as aesthetic characteristics vary as a function of the direction of cutting: parallel to the level of stratification (transversal cut), this way a circular design is seen over a layer, or perpendicular (cut following the direction of the veins), in this case the sedimentary stratification is highlighted. (...) Currently the transversal cut prevails, because with this cut the characteristic of translucency is highlighted.

http://www.litosonline.com/en/articles/en/530/onyx-materials-always-fashion

Joy & Satisfaction

Refined and innovative wall design and decoration must not mean complicated installation systems, even when you are dealing with natural stone and marble. We put a lot of effort in making the fitter’s life as easy as possible, with consequent joy and satisfaction for both the Architect / Interior Designer and the end Customer...

http://blog.lithosdesign.com/cool-wall-design-easy-installation/

Stone Federation GB

Stone Federation GB is the national trade association for the natural stone industry. It is an unincorporated association set up to represent its members and to set high standards and promote best practise and professionalism in the natural stone industry.

http://www.stonefed.org.uk/index.php?page=stone-fed-structure

Ancient Gangsaws

It is so easy for us to think that the machinery used for cutting stone in the industry are all modern inventions, and as for how stone was cut and processed in the distant past, ah, well, who cares ?... Some simple contraption, of course, would be a generalised assumption.
How wrong! In 2005 gangsaws, similar to those used today, were discovered in Turkey. It is estimated they date between 200 to 300 AC. The first one was discovered in Hierapolis, and the second in Ephesus, where a marble factory was discovered among the ruins.

The marble workshop in Ephesus was situated in the middle of a prosperous neighborhood in a city founded around 1000 B.C. The age of gangsaw discovered in Ephesus, is estimated to be between 600 to 700 AC. It was assumed the remains were of a large marble factory because several cut stones were found nearby. (A third machine was found in Grese (Jordan) and its age is estimated to be around 600 to 700 AC).

http://www.litosonline.com/en/articles/en/111/two-antique-gangsaws

Like a Snake

Salt Flat Hybrid is highly sustainable, hybrid entity, aiming to take on new program of living and research, while performing primarily as a geothermal power plant in the Salton Sea. Due to the fact that over the next seventy years more than half of the sea will disappear, revealing a salt flat basin, new opportunity for architecture has been therefore created – it has to be re-investigated how to build and exist on the periphery and how to engage in a dialogue with the decay of its surroundings...

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/salt-flat-hybrid-sanke-like-skyscraper/

Pyramids, Obelisks, Arenas...

The millennial presence of pyramids, obelisks, arenas, temples, concrete evidence of man’s ability to use stone in constructions, and of the suitability of this material for the purpose, makes their existence seem ordinary and everlasting. But if we ask ourselves how these structures, these genuine engineering masterpieces of their time, were accomplished, starting with the transportation of the building materials...

 

http://blog.lithosdesign.com/stone-gate-and-verona-arena/

a Building like a Quarry

Natural stone is often the material of choice for façades. But designing a building’s front to look like a quarry – now that is quite unusual.

But that is just what architect Max Dudler did when creating Essen’s Folkwang Public Library Complex in the heart of Germany’s Ruhr Region. Unusual, too, that a photographer was invited to help design the façade: Stefan Müller, usually called on to capture Dudler’s creations in photo format, was sent on a field trip to Trosselfels-Quarries of Hofmann Natural Stone Company.

 http://www.stone-ideas.com/2013/10/15/glass-panes-with-stone-facsimiles-form-the-facade-of-essens-folkwang-library-in-germany-2/

Inspiration for Marbles

In 1853, on one of his European tours, Stephen Salisbury II (1798-1884)- father of the Museum's founder- visited the American neoclassical sculptor Thomas Crawford at his studio in Rome. Crawford, who had lived in Rome for almost twenty years, welcomed many American tourists. His reputation in the United States, and especially in New England, was greatly enhanced by the exhibition in Boston in 1844 of his sculpture Orpheus, which had been inspired by the renowned Apollo Belvedere, a centerpiece of the Vatican's rich collections of ancient art.

http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/American/1906.116.html

An Agricultural Park for Them...

This proposal concerning a housing scheme for the homeless and the creation of an agricultural park, located in the northern suburban area of Athens comes from Dionysis Gonatas and Vangelis Lantavos of Greece.

Lately in Greece, the debate regarding the state-owned property has been intensified. In the case of buildings, many of them are unfortunately in poor condition due to lack of maintenance or complete abandonment. On the other hand as a result of the economic crisis, a large number of citizens are at risk of poverty, while the number of homeless people, especially in large urban centers, has increased dramatically according to recent statistics.

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/housing-for-the-homeless-and-agricultural-park-for-athens

How to be a man...

For support for the global exhibition “How to be a Man”, which will explore the concept of manhood in ancient Greece. From the selected artworks of its collection and from a large private collection, the Antikenmuseum Basel is highlighting the role of men in Greek society and family. In addition, the exhibition in the Skulpturhalle shows many facets of the male domain of sport in ancient Greece. 

The Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, founded in 1961, is the only Swiss Museum devoted exclusively to the ancient Mediterranean cultures. Its permanent collections consist mainly of Egyptian, Greek, Italic, Etruscan and Roman artworks, thus covering a period of time from the 4th millennium B.C. to the 6th century A.D

http://www.snf.org/index.php?ID=grants_EN&Rec_ID=7578

Imagine an Image of Natural Stone

Imagine a technology that can take a 3-D image of any object, manipulate that image and then produce a natural stone facsimile once or a hundred times – this is Stoneworld’s StoneGenie™ - an entirely new service coming to Stoneworld.http://www.stoneworld.co.uk/?xhtml=xhtml/stonegenie/default.html&xsl=minisite.xsl

THINK Tank investigates...

The Life Aquatech project by THINK Tank investigates relationship between the building systems that mediate between interior and exterior and architectural design, via shifting from air based to water based systems. The initial research started with a general concern about poor development of building systems over time which has huge impact on human comfort and its relation to architectural form. The authors advocate that the buildings can be seen as a layering of architectural design and structural support, similar to skin and bones. However, the systems that allow for human comfort act as mediators between interior and exterior operate like grey matter which lacks real interaction with the design and architecture.http://www.evolo.us/architecture/life-aquatech-investigating-biological-systems-and-current-practices-in-the-building-sector/

Essays on Contemporary Architects

Jeffrey Kipnis’s writing, thinking, and teaching casts architecture as both an intellectual discourse and a lived, affective experience. His essays on contemporary architects are less about making critical judgments than about explication, exegesis, and provocation. In these eleven essays, written between 1990 and 2008, he considers projects, concepts, and buildings by some of the most recognized architects working today, with special attention to the productions of affect. He explores “intuition” in the work of Morphosis, “exhilaration” in Coop Himmelb(l)au, “freedom” in the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA, “magic” in Steven Holl’s buildings, and “anxiety” in Rafael Moneo’s writing about contemporary architecture. Kipnis’s deft integration of art, critical theory, philosophy, pop culture, classical music, and science...

http://www.anycorp.com/was/release/37

War-damaged cities & Architecture

The aim of the essay, is to attempt to address the reconstruction prospects forced upon us by the destruction of a city particularly after a war catastrophe. Furthermore, it is not aimed at proposing the reconstruction of particular buildings but try and find deriving guiding principles. The essay will be focused and based on theories of Lebbeus Woods as a guidance of how to behave into these conditions. Through his experimental ideas about architecture and his visionary drawings in identifiable locations destroyed by war. Moreover how to basically deal and behave into war-damaged cities and create Architecture through them.

http://www.greekarchitects.gr/en/architectural-review/architecture-and-war-are-not-incompatible-id7649

Τα Μάρμαρα του Παρθενώνα

Σε μια σημαντική στιγμή για την εξέλιξη της προσπάθειας της επιστροφής των Μαρμάρων του Παρθενώνα, η Διεθνής Σύσκεψη των επί μέρους επιτροπών θα πραγματοποιηθεί την Κυριακή 6 Οκτωβρίου στην Αθήνα.

Μετά τη συνάντηση που είχε ο υπουργός Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού με τη γενική  διευθύντρια της Unesco τον Ιούλιο στο Παρίσι, κατά την οποία ο κ. Πάνος Παναγιωτόπουλος ζήτησε από την κα. Ιρίνα Μπόκοβα να ασκήσει την προσωπική και θεσμική επιρροή της προκειμένου να δρομολογηθεί η διαδικασία της Διαμεσολάβησης με τη βρετανική πλευρά, ο κορυφαίος αυτός διεθνής πολιτιστικός οργανισμός απηύθυνε επιστολή προς τον βρετανό υπουργό εξωτερικών, Ουίλιαμ Χαγκ, τη βρετανίδα υπουργό Πολιτισμού, Μαρία Μίλερ, και τον διευθυντή του Βρετανικού Μουσείου, Ρόμπερτ Νιλ Μακ Γκρέγκορ.

http://www.naftemporiki.gr/story/710543

an Impressive Skyline

Jean Nouvel designed quite an impressive addition to the skyline of gulf city Doha, Qatar. In his own manner, French architect created the Burj Doha as bold and elaborate and this iconic cylindrical form, a continuation of what has started with Torre Agbar, culminates in an elegant dome. The tower is completed last year and includes 46 floors above ground as well as 3 floors above. The high-rise aims to express the local culture, connecting contemporary and very modern aspirations with ancient Islamic designs.

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/burj-doha-skyscraper-by-jean-nouvel-becomes-the-skyline-icon-of-doha-qatar/

Classic Red embellished the Verona Arena...

There are seven principal industrial districts in which most of the Italian marble industry is concentrated. The most important in terms of size is certainly that of the Valpolicella, in the province of Verona. It consists of over 500 companies dedicated to the extraction and working of several Italian marbles that are among the most appreciated in the world for the countless colour tones they offer: from the classic red that has embellished the Verona Arena for twenty centuries, to the black of Rovere, to the yellows and pinks of the Lessinia. These are materials that are mostly destined for decoration or thin wall-coverings, for total annual sales of over 2 billion Euro, with 20% earned on foreign markets.http://www.italtrade.com/focus/5603.htm

Inside Marmomacc

Well over 1,400 exhibitors from nearly 60 countries with new entries from Singapore, Slovenia and Ireland, 16 international group attendances and 44 official trade missions from 44 countries. Marmomacc confirms is world leadership in the natural stone sector. The event now continues on its way with Marmomacc in the World travelling to the United States, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco and Egypt. Institutional visitors included the Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, and the Egyptian Minister for Industry and Trade, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour.

 http://www.marmomacc.it/en/pressArea/press-releases/