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As a part of our Stone Age 2.0 sequence, we’re republishing our stone information that features 15 well-liked varieties of pure rock that can be utilized in structure and inside design.
Alabaster
Alabaster is a comfortable, fine-grained stone that has been used for hundreds of years to carve elaborate kinds and ornaments. Nevertheless, its solubility in water implies that it’s best suited to indoor use.
In its pure type, alabaster is white and translucent, which makes it ideally suited to lighting design.
Studio Tack used tubular gentle shades comprised of alabaster to softly illuminate a comfortable Japanese restaurant in New York (above), whereas lighting studio Allied Maker used the stone to create ornate totemic flooring lamps.
Amarist Studio showcased the sculptural potentialities of the stone in its Aqua Fossil assortment, which features a espresso desk with swooping, curved legs.
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Basalt
Basalt is a dark-coloured igneous rock that’s shaped when lava cools quickly. It’s most continuously used as an mixture for concrete as it’s low-cost and high-strength, however it’s also a well-liked cladding and flooring materials, particularly when polished.
Examples of this embody the facade of a small gallery in Amsterdam by Barend Koolhaas and a Hawaiian vacation house by Walker Warner Architects wherein slender basalt cladding tiles are contrasted with cedar detailing (above).
Icelandic studio Innriinnri used two sculpted slabs of basalt stone to create a sculptural desk that doubles as a stool or a chunk of artwork, whereas South Korean artist Byung Hoon Choi polished the stone to create outsized outside furnishings.
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Flint
Flint is a extremely sturdy stone present in abundance as irregular-shaped nodules in sedimentary rocks reminiscent of chalk. It has been used as a development materials because the Roman period, although it’s not usually seen in up to date structure.
Flint varies in color, however it’s generally glassy black with a white crust. In structure, it’s often knapped – break up to reveal its shiny inside face – earlier than being laid in mortar.
Skene Catling de la Peña used a mix of knapped and unknapped flint to cowl a wedge-shaped home in Buckinghamshire (above), which creates a delicate color gradient throughout its facade.
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Gneiss
Gneiss, a sturdy metamorphic stone composed of alternating layers of various colored minerals, is well-liked to make use of for flooring and worktops. Hues can vary from pinks and golds to greens and darkish greys.
Peter Pichler sourced gray gneiss with black-and-white bands from Passeier Valley in South Tyrol to create a big counter within the bar of an Italian Alpine resort (above).
It may also be used as a cladding materials, reminiscent of in Bernardo Bader Architekten’s ski resort workplace in Austria and a radio broadcasting station in Nepal by Archium.
Granite
Granite is among the most generally used stones in structure and design. It kinds from the gradual crystallisation of magma beneath the Earth’s crust and is used for every part from load-bearing buildings to cladding, worktops and furnishings.
Its recognition is right down to its excessive compressive energy, sturdiness and low porosity. Granite can be present in an array of colors, making it appropriate for a variety of areas and kinds.
Heatherwick Studio lately used inexperienced granite to make a trio of its sculptural Spun chairs (above), whereas Snøhetta has used a gray selection to cowl virtually each floor of an Aesop retailer to emulate a rocky shoreline.
Structure studio NOARQ examined the fabric’s energy by elevating a cabin on thick blocks of granite over the doorway to a stone villa in Portugal.
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Laterite
Rusty-red laterite stone is shaped from the leaching of rocks and soil throughout alternating intervals of excessive temperature and heavy rainfall in tropical areas. This course of leaves behind a excessive focus of insoluble iron oxides, which supplies the rock its color.
Laterite is often utilized in development in Africa and Asia within the type of bricks, which have wonderful thermal mass and a low embodied vitality. These bricks are made by reducing the rock out from under the water desk when it’s moist and leaving it to harden within the air.
Architect Francis Kéré used domestically sourced laterite to construct the partitions of a faculty in Burkina Faso and Studio Lotus has used it to create the pedestal of a authorities constructing in India (above).
Limestone
There are lots of various kinds of limestone, a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate. It’s thought-about an excellent all-round constructing materials as it’s straightforward to chop and carve and often has a uniform texture and color.
Standard limestone varieties embody travertine (see under) and Portland stone, which is used on notable buildings in London reminiscent of St Paul’s Cathedral and Buckingham Palace.
David Chipperfield Architects lately used limestone to clad the Kunsthaus Zurich museum extension in Switzerland and John Pawson used it to line the surfaces of a minimalist flagship retailer in Japan for trend label Jil Sander.
Design tasks that utilise limestone embody a blocky furnishings assortment referred to as Dig The place You Stand by college students from the Estonian Academy of Arts (above).
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Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock with veins of calcite crystal. It kinds from limestone that has been uncovered to warmth and strain and is present in many colors. Marble is robust however simply carved and polishes properly, making it appropriate for quite a few functions.
It’s most popularly utilized in kitchen and toilet designs, however it’s usually used as cladding too, reminiscent of in Alexander Owen Structure’s backyard room in London (above).
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Onyx
Onyx is a translucent gemstone composed of parallel bands of quartz, present in virtually each color. It has an extended historical past of use in sculpture and jewelry however is much less generally present in structure and design. Nevertheless, onyx is typically used as a going through or lighting.
Initiatives that use onyx embody a mausoleum in Minneapolis by HGA and an workplace by Anne Claus Interiors the place it has been used to clad a multi-coloured bar (above).
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Porphyry
Porphyry is a robust and hard-wearing igneous stone that is available in reddish-brown to purple hues. It’s composed of large-grained crystals embedded in a fine-grained groundmass.
It has been utilized in structure and design since antiquity, although it’s not often seen in up to date structure and design. At present it’s principally used as mixture within the development of roads in locations the place automobiles require studded winter tires.
Pedevilla Architects used a block of porphyry as a kitchen island for a cookery faculty in South Tyrol, whereas architect Claudio Silvestrin used it to line the partitions of a Milanese trend boutique.
Quartzite
Shaped from sandstone uncovered to excessive warmth and strain, quartzite is a really arduous and sturdy metamorphic rock. It’s often present in white and gray shades.
Quartzite is a well-liked materials for kitchen counter tops as it’s immune to staining, however is mostly used as an ornamental cladding or flooring.
Examples of this embody a dwelling in Utah by Klima Structure, architect Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals spa (above) and a monolithic Parisian library by Agence Pascale Guédot.
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Sandstone
Sandstone consists of advantageous silicate grains which have eroded from different rocks, giving it both a heat purple, yellow or orange colouration.
Used for development since prehistoric instances, sandstone continues to be a well-liked selection in structure and design as it’s plentiful, sturdy and simple to deal with.
Latest architectural tasks that use the fabric embody a cathedral extension by Feilden Fowles, a museum by Álvaro Siza, and an oval-shaped all-girls faculty in India (above) that was designed to mix into its desert environment.
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Shale
This gray fine-grained stone is among the commonest sedimentary rocks on Earth. It’s shaped from the compaction of silt and dirt into skinny, fissile layers. In structure and design, shale is often crushed and processed into bricks, tiles and pottery, or heated with limestone to make cement.
Aketuri Architektai used shale tiles to clad a sharp woodland home in Lithuania (above), whereas Spaceworkers wrapped the stone across the basement of a Portuguese home to offer it with a uncooked, rugged aesthetic.
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Slate
Slate is a darkish fine-grained stone that’s shaped when a sedimentary rock, reminiscent of shale, is subjected to excessive strain. It’s a foliated rock, which means it’s made up of skinny sedimentary layers, which permits it to be break up – or riven – into skinny slabs.
Slate is sturdy and weather- and frost-resistant, making it a well-liked materials selection for cladding, roofing and paving.
In inside tasks, the fabric is usually additionally used as flooring tiles, hearths and kitchen worktops. Natalie Weinmann sanded and polished the stone to create a blocky furnishings assortment.
TRIAS used it to clad a small author’s retreat in a Welsh valley whereas Austin Maynard Architects diamond, scalloped and brick-shaped slate shingles to cowl a Melbourne home (above).
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Travertine
Probably the most generally used types of limestone is travertine, which has been sourced from mineral springs to be used as a constructing materials for hundreds of years. The biggest constructing on the planet comprised of this stone is the Colosseum in Rome.
At present, travertine is generally processed into tiles for inner and exterior floor coverings, however it’s also a well-liked materials for toilet fit-outs. As it’s discovered with troughs on its floor, processing travertine often entails sprucing its floor.
Initiatives that use travertine embody an extension to a German museum by Bez + Kock Architekten (above), an condo renovation in Lithuania by 2XJ, and a furnishings assortment by David/Nicolas.
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Stone Age 2.0
This text is a part of Dezeen’s Stone Age 2.0 sequence, which explores the potential of stone to be a viable, low-carbon, fashionable structural materials.
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