While the stone industry is always going to be international and that is reflected at the UK’s Natural Stone Show, there is more stone from the British Isles being exhibited at next year’s exhibition in London than ever. The stone from some of those exhibiting is pictured here.
The Natural Stone Show is back at ExCeL London next year and although it is as international as ever with exhibitors showing stone from around the world, there is also going to be more British stone than ever on display.
Britain might not produce the highly figurative marbles and granites that are such a hit in the avant garde interiors market, but the subtle hues of British limestone, sandstone and slate have always attracted the discerning architect, interior designer and landscaper.
And they are eminently environmentally friendly. Dimension stone production is an essentially low energy and sustainable process*. The stone is removed from the face in large blocks. It is normally sawn – and any mason who has sawn stone by hand will tell you how hard it is. But the fact that it can be sawn by hand – and for centuries was – indicates that an electric saw does not need to consume vast amounts of energy to cut stone. It certainly does not use as much as the high energy kilns required to make the cement used in concrete products.
Even stone imported from the other side of the world has a relatively small carbon footprint – and the largest part of that is the result of the ships, trains and lorries required to get it from the quarry to the site. But remove the transport element of CO2 emissions by sourcing local stone and you have a product that can make considerable contributions to low carbon development.
Add to that the low maintenance longevity of stone that improves its environmental credentials in lifetime costing (you only have to look at the UK’s medieval cathedrals to see how well stone performs in use) and you have an almost perfect ecological building material.
As if that were not enough, natural stone also has the advantage of being one of the most aesthetically pleasing materials ever used for construction. And it only becomes more attractive with weathering, in complete contrast to most other building materials.
The use of stone instantly imparts gravitas, solidity and status to a building and nothing is more appropriate than a locally sourced stone that belongs in the location in which it will appear.
Most of the stone used in the UK these days is imported, and imports do vastly increase the palette of colours and textures available to the architect and designer. But sometimes a stone from the British Isles can also provide a solution to the questions being asked. The stone industry in the UK today is a well-equipped, efficient supplier of building products and local stone can make ideal cladding, walling, paving, roofing, floor and wall tiles, shower trays, worktops and furniture. It can be used in a plethora of ways, as the pictures here from some of the companies exhibiting at the next Natural Stone Show in London demonstrate.
Sustainable stone:
Evidence for the sustainability of stone and its small carbon footprint can be found in Historic Scotland’s Embodied Carbon in Natural Building Stone in Scotland report (www.sistech.co.uk/sistechonlinedocs.htm), the University of Bath's Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) (http://wiki.bath.ac.uk/display/ICE) and in the BRE Green Guide (www.thegreenguide.org.uk).