CORNERSTONE
FROM THE RESIDUAL STONE TO PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

This research concerns the use of residual stone from the quarries in architectural design, through stone masonry, creation of new stone sub products design, sculptors installations and land art. The stone industries of extraction and transformation leave a high percentage of useless stone at the quarries – waste stone, debris – without other use except crushing. In Portugal, in the marble geological basin – Estremoz, Vila Viçosa, Borba – just between 5 and 25% of the extracted stone is marketed in blocks. A high percentage of residual stones accumulated in mountains around the quarries are occupying potential extraction areas, and visually affecting the landscape and ecological balance.

«From the Residual Stone to Philosopher’s Stone» that culminated in the experimental project for the Marble Foundation headquarters. The creation of the Foundation should involve a partnership between several public institutions. The experimental building should be an icon of innovative application of the Residual Stone transformed into a Philosopher’s Stone. The use of the residual stone can cover different productive domains – teleological, technological, economical, ethical, ecological, aesthetic and encompass different valuation scales – from planning, to urban design and architectural design – under new sustainable constructive and plastical solutions the recovery of the quarries may be associated with applied innovation of residual stone in structural masonry stone blocs and to the production of rolled modules applied into bioclimatic solutions, design, and also the quarries aesthetic planning meant as land art or land stone.

Team

Prof. Jorge Cruz Pinto (CIAUD-FAUL) | Arq. Cristina Mantas (JCP+CM) | Prof. Ljiljana Cavic (CIAUD-FAUL) | Prof. Soheyl Sazedj (CIAUD-CIAUD) | Prof. João Goes (FCT – UNL)