International Housing Conference, ENHR – European Network for Housing Research 2005

Marble and stone in housing in the sustainable city.
Marbles and stones are very traditional and ancient materials which have been used for centuries to build our cities, because of their very good technical characteristics and of their very high aesthetical value.
But they also are a natural, precious and not renewable resource and consequently they have to be used in a conscious and sustainable way.
The new technological systems developed in the last years, offer the possibility to cut slabs with thicknesses down to five millimetres straight from the block, reducing the impact on the environment during the extraction and the transport.
These thin slabs are then reinforced with epoxy resins and used in back ventilated envelopes’ systems, fixed with mechanical anchorages to metallic secondary structures mounted on the façades.
These systems may also be used to cover existing buildings and the slabs can easily be removed and separated during the refurbishing or the demolition and, with the obvious adaptations, re-used in other constructions.
These unique materials, with their quality, their ancestral meanings and their fascination, can be then utilized to design the cities, paying the correct attention to the sustainable development’s absolute collective needs.
International Housing Conference ENHR – European Network for Housing Research 2005

Reykjavík, 29 giugno – 2 luglio 2005

ENHR/Sigillum Universitatis Islandiae, Reykjavík, 2005