Alberto and Lorenzo Bartolomei, who head the Italian stone company of Il Casone, major producers of Pietra Serena sandstone, believe stone’s strength lies in its aesthetics and technical performance. Il Casone are based near Firenzuola, the area in Italy from which Pietra Serena sandstone is produced. From the time the stone is cut from the quarry face and throughout processing, computer-aided quality control is paramount, tracking each stone through production so it can always be traced back to its exact location in the quarry.
It is this level of control over production, working in close collaboration with the national and international designers who use the stone, that has gained Il Casone their reputation. No matter how exacting or complex the contemporary expectations of stone as a building material, they aim to satisfy it and keep the sandstone of Firenzuola in the architect’s palette.
The craft process of stonemasonry is integrated with the industrial process to integrate the natural material into a work of architecture and urban context. It is with such an approach that this traditional building material of central Italy has moved into the international arena.
Il Casone have supplied the stone for many internationally significant projects – projects that include Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Trieste, designed by Boris Podrecca; the MOMA in New York, designed by Khon Pedersen Fox Associates; the Benjamin Platz building complex in Berlin, designed by Hans Kollhoff. They also supply the floors of Apple stores throughout the world.
Here, Alberto Bartolomei, the Managing Director of the firm, talks to NSS about his company’s strategy and his vision for the future.
Your company has expanded a lot in recent years, with new marketing and promotion strategies with international designers such as Kengo Kuma and Claudio Silvestrin, participation in various events, projects and exhibitions. When did you begin this phase of development and what was it that prompted you to make the move?
Around 10 years ago we found ourselves at a crossroads. It was necessary to make the company break out of a rather rigid mould that has always characterised the stone sector, connected with a very traditional use of these materials.
As a consequence, the first collaborations with designers arose. We looked upon them as an essential resource in order to carry out the change.
This openness towards the world of design was begun with difficulty because traditionally stone material was used and very well known only for certain types of applications – mostly flooring and cladding – in line with the historic Italian building tradition.
Initially, convincing designers to adopt this material for innovative solutions wasn’t easy. But we wanted to put our faith in those who saw the product in an innovative way and wanted to experiment with its expressive possibilities in new areas.
This journey went from there. Each example and each creation began to reap prestige and awareness so that it became easier to consider new work that was more complex and interesting.
Now growth has become quite fast. The creations and collaborations developed with famous designers and architects has led to closer relationships with designers in general, giving rise to some remarkable results.
So we can say that the point of departure was really the choice to enter into close collaboration with the designers.
You have also staked a lot on promoting the company in recent years. How important was its role in your development?
Communication is fundamental for us. Today, we’re no longer selling Pietra Serena as a material, we’re selling a brand. Thanks to communication, we have succeeded in rehabilitating a product by identifying it with the trademark of a company.
The brand is such that it allows our products to stand out from others not because it is in itself different but because it identifies the whole company and what we do – the overall service we offer. That’s what makes us distinctive.
Communication has made a decisive input into this process. All our initiatives, such as our website and participation in events or projects, are very dynamic and important in this continual development.
On one hand, they tend to consolidate our image but on the other they continually enhance it. In all, these actions reflect the soul of our company and its philosophy of openness. This element of dynamism and openness is certainly perceived from outside, and sets the company apart.
Another strong point and a distinguishing feature is our collaboration with other, complementary companies in research projects aimed at examining and presenting new and reliable solutions.
We start from the assumption that stone is not an element that stands alone in a project. For its final use, it’s necessary that there are elements of interaction – technological elements. For this reason we opened up a dialogue with companies on our wavelength – companies that make adhesives, or who have other solutions for the maintenance of stone. Fischer, Mapei and Fila are our partners, for example – businesses that can give us advice and allow us to offer the designer a complete package of solutions that go from the concept to the finished project, making them feasible.
On the other hand, there are major companies with great technologies that sometimes find their completion in the union with stone. Or technology that sometimes is not visible or is not on its own of great appeal, that can be combined with the aesthetic and expressive element offered by stone. This is how synergy is born.
Moreover, in this way we give a guarantee to the designer and make him realise that behind him there is technological research. At the moment, we have a project underway with leaders in the building industry. It is called Casone Engineering. It was created to offer all the solutions in the installation, setting and treatment of stone.
In addition, we have created a group of technicians called Sto Hang who examine everything that is to be made to order – those parts of buildings that need to be planned and checked, those elements that conclusively enhance a building and which are assessed on each occasion with whoever is doing the design. This group of engineers and technicians is continually dedicated to developing this aspect from the point of view of supplying a complete service.
You are always at the Marmomacc exhibition in Verona, as you will be again this year (from 29 September to 2 October). You have twice won the Best Communicator Award. Exhibitions must be important to your overall marketing strategy?
The initiatives that Marmomacc takes forward are reciprocally advantageous. In recent years, the exhibition has grown and become a key event, I would say globally, for the sector, thanks to the ever more active participation of companies which, stimulated by new initiatives, have launched a sort of positive competition between each other, noticeably raising the level of the offerings. In this way, a virtuous circle has been created.
We consider the initiatives of Marmomacc – the prizes, the meetings with designers, the seminars or conventions, the training – as fundamental. This exhibition is the most important in the sector, at the international level as well.
In our communication strategy, however, there isn’t just Marmomacc – we seek to try our hand in exhibitions that have nothing to do with the sector. I refer to those exhibitions that cover design, furniture, hard landscaping, and exhibitions in general that feature quality of life and homes. All are areas in which stone, as a natural, expressive, aesthetically pleasing and comfortable material, can play a part.
Our strength, after all, is also in conveying and proposing ideas, and we can do this in different spheres. The stimulus comes from the collaborations we engage in with the design world. We inspire one another.
There are developers and designers who have the desire to experiment and try out materials in different contexts. We make ourselves available for this. A mechanism is created that each time leads us to explore different themes. Our appearances at exhibitions in recent years have been diversified and in different situations, and we intend to carry on in this direction – although Marmomacc remains an unmissable date for us.
Presumably you are not immune from the economic downturn in the world economy in general. How has this affected you and the key markets you operate in?
There’s no doubt that the crisis has been hard. In the past, the market was cyclical but even if there were crises in some countries, it was possible to focus on other markets. This time the crisis is global and has involved countries that had an economic structure also very much based on the building industry – such as Spain, for example.
So it’s obvious that this crisis has a knock-on effect of a financial nature. Payment times have stretched, guarantees are more complex, just as it is more difficult to access credit. All in all a complex scenario that has itself slowed the possibility of doing business.
As far as Il Casone are concerned, I can say that we are a company that works very much in a niche market. Certainly we’ve had a slight downswing but I’d say it’s uncomfortable rather than significant.
Signs of recovery are out there. We see them in the USA, for example. Currently, at the international level, our key market is Europe for 50% of our turnover. But we now also have commercial relations with USA, Australia and Japan. The South American market is opening up. These are all countries which greatly prize the ‘Made in Italy’ label.
There is one issue more than most that is becoming increasingly significant across the world: sustainability. You made a point of publicising the fact that your stand at Marmomacc last year was created using off-cuts from the workshop that might otherwise have been thrown away. Presumably you wanted to emphasise that what is currently considered waste does not have to be so? Are designers showing any signs of understanding they could use stone in more sustainable ways?
Before answering, I’d like to make an observation. It’s common knowledge that our operation, as an extractive activity, has an impact on the land. However, recent studies carried out by the Tuscan Region have shown the fact that the extractive activity and the processing of stone materials has less environmental impact than other industries in the building sector… ceramics, for example, and others… even though this is not always widely recognised.
In addition, the impact of activities like ours is temporary, because we are obliged to restore the site of the quarry and return it close to its original state. At the same time the extraction and processing of stone does not produce much CO2.
To follow on from that, in our processing cycle we have an entire series of activities where we create a situation of waste. The waste that comes directly from the quarry is already destined for recycle and re-use as material to be broken up and used as aggregate.
‘Waste’ also exists that comes from the cutting and sawing phases. Why, we asked ourselves, don’t we give value to this, too? We realised that these pieces of stone could be given value in the creation of something new, even though it was a substantially ‘poor’ product since it was essentially raw material.
So, starting with the Salone del Mobile furniture exhibition in Milan, we began to use this ‘waste’. As always, we used it in conjunction with architects and designers, so that these very waste slabs were to compose and offer textures for new cladding, which was extremely relevant and expressive. The stand at Marmomacc went in the same direction, created precisely with this processing of waste.
This is a challenge that all companies must confront, not only for financial reasons but also for sustainability. It is definitely a theme we want to explore further. And, as always, the exploration will be made together with the designers.
We often encourage the designers to visit the relevant quarries and workshops so that they can see these products, even in their raw form and as waste – although I would like to move beyond this definition of ‘waste’. I’d like to speak not of ‘waste’ but of ‘remainder’ – that which remains outside the normal processing / production cycle. It is that which must be kept and above all put to good use in as many ways as possible. This can only be achieved by knowledge of the material, by creativity and by using technology.
Innovation is clearly how you see Il Casone progressing and growing. So where does it go from here?
I could sum it up like this: painstaking research of new ideas and proposals in close connection with the world of design and great technical-managerial capacity in order to be able to carry it out. Making demands of oneself, not imposing limits… and not necessarily looking for the solutions in our own sector.