Introduction to Scottish stone published
The Natural Stone Institute, born out of the Scottish Stone Liaison Group but intended to cover the whole of the UK, has produced its first technical publication. It is called \'Building with Scottish Stone\'.
It is intended as an introduction to the Scottish stone industry for planners, specifiers, developers and anyone interested in building in stone. It has been produced in conjunction with the Scottish Executive and with the financial backing of a broad spectrum of organisations and the stone trade itself.
Papers have been contributed by the British Geological Survey, BRE, Historic Scotland, Robert Gordon University, Simpson & Brown Architects, the Scottish Stone Liaison Group and Stone Federation GB, as well as individual members of the Institute.
\'Building with Scottish Stone\' was launched in January in the offices of the Scottish Executive in Edinburgh at a seminar attended by about 80 people.
The publication has been given to planning authorities and architects in Scotland for their feedback. Sarah Bailey, education officer of the Natural Stone Institute, says: "Hopefully, once people have read it they will realise what they don\'t know. We want to take some direction from that regarding future publications."
The Institute would like to produce similar introductions to the stone industries of England and Northern Ireland.
Copies of the 64-page, A4 size publication cost £9.99 each (£6.49 for Institute members) and are available from Sarah Bailey. Tel: 0131 440 9473. Email: see below.
Or you should be able to look at it on the NSI website in the spring when the site (see below) should have been revamped and will include the contents of the new publication plus some extra material that did not make it into the book because of the limitations on space.
If you would like to join the Institute - the fee is £25 for UK members and £75 for overseas members - you can also find out how to do so on the Institute website. A major function of the Institute is to facilitate training and expand the understanding of building in stone.