Hard landscaping is increasingly becoming urban art and stone has played no small part in that, as the projects mentioned below show. But one of its attractions is its ecological soundness. The industry knows stone stacks up in environmental terms but it is being called upon to prove it
Stone in a landscape is as natural as trees and grass, which is why so many designers of urban landscapes choose it. It even seems strange in the light of a new aesthetic that has elevated the importance of the spaces between buildings that just a decade ago natural stone was not necessarily the product of choice for hard landscaping. Now it undoubtedly is.
The driving force of the increased use of stone was imports. Landscape architects might prefer the aesthetic of stone but someone has to pay for it and in a lot of projects price took precedence, which meant concrete was used.
Then came Indian and Chinese stone that put the natural material in contention with concrete on price. At the same time projects were having the word ‘millennium’ attached to them and suddenly designers were thinking of the next 1,000 years rather than the next five. Councils even started considering life time costs, as they are now required to, rather than prices. In terms of longevity, as well as aesthetics, stone wins hands down.
And a council’s expenditure on hard landscaping pays dividends in terms of general improvement of an area. Michael Heap, the Managing Director of CED, quotes Hamilton in Scotland as a case in point. Within just a matter of weeks of improving the hard landscaping of the area with some attractive stonework, privately-owned shops in the area had started smartening themselves up.
“It really does happen that quickly,” says Michael. “You improve an area. The value of property goes up and people want to look after that valuable asset. These are the arguments I have been putting forward – and it’s keeping me busy, not to mention one or two others.”
Using a natural product also gives clients and specifiers a nice warm feeling. It is no coincidence that the words ‘natural’ and ‘stone’ have both been purloined by the manufacturers of man-made products that compete with stone.
Their use of the words are often accompanied by arguments that go along the lines of “well, they are 80% natural stone”. Yes, but it’s crushed and that’s what we normally call concrete.
The graphs on the right of this page show how rapidly imports of natural stone hard landscaping products have increased – and how much of the imports come from Asia.
In fact, the general upward trend of imports of stone hard landscaping products (actually, stone in general), in spite of the glitch in 2005, stretches back to 1996. And it has benefited British stone as well because, according to those British quarries supplying indigenous hard landscaping (there are no reliable figures recording the production of British dimensional stone), the increase of imports has dragged the sales of British materials along with them in a generally improving appreciation and understanding of stone.
The graph on the previous page also show what happened to imports of natural stone hard landscaping last year – down 30% by value and 40% by volume on the year before. The greater fall in volume than value is no surprise as it simply reflects the weakening of sterling that has increased the price of imports.
That price hike alone might have been expected to curtail demand somewhat, although its effect was dwarfed by the banks’ credit crunch that led to the fall in sterling and the recession.
But changes are happening quickly now, and the anecdotal evidence from companies selling hard landscaping at the moment is that prospects are picking up as the government pushes money through to local authorities to make sure improvement schemes go ahead as planned or are even brought forward.
With economic activity in the economy in general remaining subdued, however, competition for contracts that are available will increase and the concrete product manufacturers, who were already trying to win back market share from natural stone, can be expected to increase their attack.
One of the attractions of natural stone to clients and specifiers has been the association of the word ‘natural’ with the concept of environmental friendliness and the much vaunted ‘sustainability’. That association is why the concrete product manufacturers are so keen to claim the words ‘natural’ and ‘stone’ for themselves.
And they are being effective at eroding stone’s moral high ground on ecology, especially when it comes to imports.
Although, admittedly, stone from India and China has to travel a long way to reach the British Isles, it comes on ships, which are relatively environmentally friendly forms of carbon burning transport – the fact that transport by ship is so cheap is testament to how little fuel ships burn per tonne carried.
Nevertheless, it is systems using Chinese granite that get the worst, ‘E’, rating in the landscaping section of the BRE’s new Green Guide published on the internet last year. And it is systems using concrete paving slabs that get the top ‘A+’ rating.
Of course, China and India are big countries and the stone might have to travel a long way by road or rail to reach the port. Even so it is difficult to believe there is such a big gap in environmental impact between a product that contains cement, made by a process said to produce the world’s third largest amount of CO2 emissions after power production and all transport, and a product that is dug out of the ground and either split or sawn, will last practically for ever and can often be re-used in the same form with no more than a clean.
It is the stone industry’s assumption that natural stone is so self-evidently environmentally friendly that has led to it doing little to prove it and allowed concrete to challenge that ecological high ground.
As Iain Kennedy, the Chairman of Stone Federation’s Quarry Group, says: for a long time while the Green Guide was being produced it was assumed that it would identify the environmental benefits of natural stone. And in many cases stone does come out well in the Guide. But not all. And hard landscaping is an area where it does not always do well, although, inevitably (because it does not have to travel so far) British stone does better.
One of the strongest challenges to some of stone’s environmental credentials has come from Marshalls, themselves major producers of British York stone as well as being importers of natural sandstone and granite from India and China. They also sell concrete hard landscaping products.
They have made a considerable effort to ensure their imported stones are from environmentally and ethically sound sources. They want to be rid of child and bonded labour. They have obtained independent verification for their claims and resent bland and unsubstantiated claims from other companies simply jumping on the green bandwagon.
They have produced a brochure, called Halt the Greenwash, that vilifies those who are undermining attempts to provide sustainable materials by making all sorts of unsubstantiated claims about how green their products are. They quote research that shows more than “60% of consumers feel that sustainability issues are the most important issues facing the world today”.
They quote from one stone company’s website, “Natural stone is one of the most environmentally friendly materials used in construction” and say this ignores the potential environmental impact of quarrying, the location of the quarries and the impact of transport.
These issues are not going to go away and stone has to have its arguments ready to state its case because it is clearly being targeted by other sectors as the material against which to stake their own claim to sustainability.
Hardscape’s winners
It has been an award-winning year for Hardscape Products. In November two projects they had supplied received recognition in the Landscape Institute Awards and in the same month they were commended in the Landscaping category of the Natural Stone Awards, while in June their work at Northumbria University got three mentions in the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Renaissance Awards.
At Northumbria University Royal White bush-hammered granite podia with 316 grade stainless steel inserts designed and manufactured by Hardscape helped a new public realm at City Campus East, designed by environmental firm SLR Consulting in Newcastle, gain the title of North East Project of the Year. The project also won Sustainability and Design & Innovation and was described by RICS judges as "an iconic building set within high-quality landscaped surroundings”.
At the Stone Federation Great Britain Stone Awards in November, Crystal Black, Classic, Kobra, UB Blend and Starburst from Hardscape helped gain New Road, Brighton, designed by Landscape Projects, receive recognition.
The other award-winning project to which Hardscape contributed was at Burscough in Lancashire, where a waterjet cutter was used to create the inserts and lettering in the granite affordably. The project scooped a national prize at the Landscape Institute Awards. The award applauded the project for its work around the series of new, small interlinked squares and pedestrian routes, animated with paving, artwork, lighting signage and a village clock.
The regeneration scheme, which was designed by BCA Landscape, ties directly into the building of a new Tesco store and a rail / bus interchange, which helps to bring people into the town centre.
To date, 135 jobs have been created as part of the scheme, which has also been awarded a commendation from the North West Royal Town Planning Institute as a model of best practice.
Easipoint sett the standard
Environmental and economic considerations led to the specification of EasiPoint specialist mortars for a prestigious £1.95million hard landscaping scheme in the Lakeland town of Windermere.
The high profile Windermere Enhancement Scheme has provided a new look for Crescent Road, the main shopping street that makes up part of the town’s one-way system.
High quality materials were specified for the upgrade, which has involved widening and reconstruction of the pavements, removing street clutter and the provision of street furniture and materials to follow a site specific urban design.
Designed for Cumbria County Council Client Services by Capita Symonds’ Carlisle office, the scheme involves 0.28hectares of high quality paving featuring sandstone from York, Italian Porphyry and granite from China.
The natural paving materials were selected for their richly contrasting colours, strength, longevity and to satisfy highway design standards.
EasiPoint mortars were selected by main contractor Carillion Plc’s Warrington office for all aspects of the bedding, bonding and jointing of the paved areas.
EasiPoint Fine Bedding Concrete (FBC) was made available on tap from a silo based in the site compound in a nearby garden centre car park. The silo was able to provide 30 tonnes of mixed material from each delivery. Approximately 320tonnes of EasiPoint FBC were used over the course of the contract, along with 300 bags of rapid setting EasiPoint RS Bedding mortar, which was used for areas that had to be returned to service quickly.
To provide a bond of adequate strength, EasiPoint BondPlus slurry was applied to the elements prior to bedding. Final jointing was carried out using Easipoint Standard gun injected mortar in Natural colour for the paving slabs, while slurry-applied SettPoint Natural high strength jointing mortar was used for the wider gaps between setts. The setts are used to provide a clear demarcation between the smoothly paved areas and the kerb edges at junctions.
Carillion say: “The silo was a big advantage because it meant there was virtually no wasted material. And it met the client’s requirement for material supplies to be sourced locally where possible in order to reduce transport costs and carbon emissions.
“It also helped to provide better working conditions and limited the dust and stored material in an area heavily populated by shops and people.”
The scheme was being funded by Cumbria County Council, the Northwest Development Agency and the European Union.
External works takes new look as StreetDesign
Street Design is the new version of the two-yearly External Works exhibition. It takes place at the NEC, Birmingham, 21-23 April, in conjunction with Traffex, the traffic engineering, road safety, highway infrastructure and maintenance exhibition, and Parkex, dedicated to parking. The three shows will have nearly 500 exhibitors filling hall five. Around 10,000 visitors are expected.
It is being flagged as a new event focused on conserving and enhancing the urban built environment. It will include a free three-day seminar organised by the Landscape Institute and the Institution of Lighting Engineers.
The main themes of the exhibition will be brought to life in ‘The Street’, a feature designed by architects Capita Lovejoy. ‘The Street’ will offer a live representation of landscape design for the public realm, showcasing the latest products in situ.
Patrick Butler is first Marshalls Contractor of the Year
Hard landscaping product suppliers Marshalls presented awards for the first time last year to the contractors on their Marshalls Register.
The Awards covered a range of categories from Best Project by a New Marshalls Register Member to Best Use of Marshalls Ethically Sourced Haworth Moor Sandstone. They attracted hundreds of submissions from Marshalls’ 1,000-strong associated member companies from all over the UK.
The top accolade was the Marshalls Register Contractor of the Year, selected from among the winners of each of the categories. The prize was a Toyota Hilux Double Cab. Winners were Patrick Butler Landscapes from Kent for a patio they created at a property in Canterbury. Winning Best Patio Award had put them in the running for the top prize. Even to reach the final, companies had to win one of 12 regional events Marshalls held around the UK.
Even when it rains it pours when its GftK
The first job in the UK to use GftK Paving Joint Mortars was re-paving with porphyry setts in the market square in the historic East Midlands town of Newark. “Since then the sales have been phenomenal, despite the recession, and to both public and private projects,” says David Mackay of NCC Streetscape in Chorley, Lancashire, who have introduced the mortars to the UK and Ireland.
One of the major advantages of GftK, which has been used in Germany to much acclaim for 15 years, is that it is so quick. And contractors can continue working even in wet weather and low temperatures (down to 3°C) because GftK is not mixed with water as part of the curing process. It is mixed on site – resin is poured on to treated sand – and it is poured on to the surface and spread with a squeegee. It is self-compacting so does not need tamping down. The surface is brushed off.
It is strong yet flexible and is pervious, to comply with sustainable drainage system (SUDS) requirements.
As a product it looks expensive at £60 for a 25kg tub. But as a system it comes into its own because it has shown in use to be up to ten times faster to apply than cementitious products – or even more if use of the cementitious product is delayed because of rain or cold weather. Less time means a lower labour cost, not to mention less disruption.
“It’s difficult to say exactly how much faster it is to use,” David Mackay told NSS, “because it depends whether you are using 400 x 400mm sandstone or 100 x 100mm granite setts. But it’s faster by multiples – it’s phenomenally fast.” He says at Newark four people did the pointing in four hours although six days had been allowed for it.
Avoiding the use of water also means that, from a specifier’s point of view, the performance of GftK is consistent because it is unaltered by variations in humidity.
“People concentrate on the bedding and the nature and colour of stone and then say you can point it with anything you like. But that’s your first line of defence. If it fails the stone will start to rock. Failures at joints cause a lot of problems,” says David.
The new mortars are available from NCC Streetscape on Tel: 01257 266696 or you can buy on line at the company’s website.
Pomery turn paving into an art
A major revitalisation of Slough High Street and town centre is currently underway with Pomery Natural Stone supplying 13,000m2 of mainly Chinese granite and quartzite and some Portuguese granite, including radiussed black granite benches.
The centrepiece of the scheme is a mosaic designed by the artist Bhajan Hunjan with lettering by Alec Peever. Granites used to create the mosaic, which was produced in Portugal using waterjet cutting, are: Black Velvet, Moonlight White, Amarelo Figueira, Verde Maritaka, Samba JP and Braise Rouge.
Unusually, Pomery, who would normally only supply the stone, also took charge of laying it for the mosaic because it was a complex project.
Turning the paving into art has been the work of three creative teams of which Bhajan Hunjan has been a part for about five years.
She says the High Street is long and narrow, but opens out at the town square that leads on to a shopping and leisure centre. “I started thinking about the way people cross the square,” she told NSS, “following desire lines.”
She was also working with a dance company, called Fusion, and she researched the history of the town, identifying its agricultural background, including the commercialisation of the cox apple. Frederick Herschel had lived in Slough when he discovered Uranus. All these elements came together to influence the design that Bhajan created.
In the High Street leading to the square is Alec Peever’s lettering, which is sand blasted then painted by hand.
Slough having a multi-cultural population inspired the inscriptions, which are in a variety of languages including Punjabi, Turkish and Urdu that are translated into English.
Other artwork incorporated into the scheme includes Terrazzo by Anne Smyth, seating by furniture designer Fred Bear and sculptures cast in acrylics by Simon Watkins that will stand on granite plinths.
All together there are £6million worth of artistic contributions as part of the £400million Heart of Slough rejuvenation project.
CED like to look on the bright side
Michael Heap, the Managing Director of stone hard landscaping specialists CED, likes to have an input to the projects he is involved with and likes to encourage designers to look beyond grey granite, as they did in the project pictured below in Exeter.
The materials supplied by CED for this Devon County Council project carried out by JTT Contracting included 670m2 of porphyry paving and 30tonnes of porphyry setts, along with 800m2 of York stone paving and 40tonnes of hand selected cobbles.
There is a plethora of ideas of different stone materials that can be used in hard landscaping on the CED website.
There’s no slip up with slate
Welsh Slate have supplied slate from three of their North Wales quarries to give Caernarfon’s ‘Y Maes’ (Welsh for square) a facelift.
Sitting at the heart of Caernarfon’s historic centre, the square is not only a main thoroughfare for shoppers, it is the backdrop to the town’s picturesque medieval castle, which draws thousands of tourists to Caernarfon every year.
The square’s previous concrete paving diminished the aesthetic appeal of the castle and Gwynedd Council took the decision to refurbish it as part of a regeneration programme that also includes development of the town’s Victorian docks.
A major consideration in the choice of paving material had to be slip resistance.
Alan Smith, Managing Director of Welsh Slate, says: “Natural Welsh slate paving meets all the relevant performance standards without any special surface treatment. It’s a naturally durable surface that not only looks good but stays looking good and doesn’t deteriorate over time.”
All Welsh Slate paving products are independently tested and the determination of slip resistance is measured according to the industry standard pendulum test BS EN 14231:2003, achieving a value well in excess of 36 – ie low slip potential.
Alan says Welsh Slate, which has been a premium roofing material for hundreds of years, is currently enjoying increasing popularity as a paving material thanks in no small degree to its excellent slip-resistance.
Slate does not, of course, only come from Wales and Shadwell Soundwaves is a project involving a series of six public benches created using Cumbrian slate from Burlington.
Serving as the focal point within Tarling Heights and Watney Plaza in London – a new complex of residential units, shops and park developed by One Housing Group – the Burlington stone benches help create an attractive and welcoming space for residents and visitors.
The idea for the Burlington stone benches came from artist David Little. He used the caps of honed mid-green Broughton Moor stone to display intricately cut concentric stone troughs and ridges created by Burlington’s design team using the latest in CNC stone cutting technology to create the impression of a pebble dropped into a pool of water to link Shadwell to its spring and spa past. The ripples also evoke moments in history resonating through time and play a pivotal part in the design of lettering cut into the slate in situ by stonemason Simon Keeley. The letters spell out quotes from members of the local community.
Inset into Burlington’s pale green Elterwater weathered walling stone that forms the base of benches are LEDs that change colour in response to the movement of passing pedestrians.
Woodkirk supply Leeds
Woodkirk Stone Sales, the suppliers of York stone who last year also took over the name of former York stone quarriers Farrar, whose site has been bought by supermarket company Asda, supplied the stone setts to Hardscape for Albion Place in Leeds city centre. The contractors were North Midland Construction and the clients Leeds City Council.