From Tafí del Valle to San Carlos de Bariloche, the implementation of natural stone in contemporary Argentine architecture reveals the decisions of architects seeking to maintain a dialogue with their surrounding environment and highlight the purity of materials. While stone is one of the oldest building materials, enduring throughout history, its application in homes in Uruguay, Brazil, and Mexico highlights different characteristics in terms of textures, shapes, shades, and patterns.
Upon becoming a sovereign country, free from British Rule, the people of India found themselves faced with questions they had never needed to answer before. Coming from different cultures and origins, the citizens began to wonder what post-independence India would stand for. The nation-builders now had the choice to carve out their own future, along with the responsibility to reclaim its identity - but what was India's identity? Was it the temples and huts of the indigenous folk, the lofty palaces of the Mughal era, or the debris of British rule? There began a search for a contemporary Indian sensibility that would carry the collective histories of citizens towards a future of hope.
Nowadays, many architects have been looking for inspiration in traditional techniques, adapting them to more contemporary designs. In this sense, floors with rustic stone such as quartzite and sandstone are becoming more and more popular in residential architecture. Although this material was usually used for external areas, to build traditional stepping stone garden paths, for example, today it is also used in interiors, as an element that disrupts the hardness of rectilinear layouts and, in some cases, creates a connection between interior and exterior, which is something many professionals seek to achieve.
Over the course of the last decade there has been a growing interest in the handcrafted buildings, as well as in the application of local and renewable materials in building construction. Under the concerns about the heavy environmental and economic expenses caused by construction, nowadays urban planners are embracing the concept of sustainability, which refers to “meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Ancient builders had deep knowledge about environmental conditions and the physical needs of humans in their search for shelter. Regardless of technological advances and the evolution of our perception of the world around us, this kind of knowledge and relationship with our surroundings can still be applied today and adapted to our current context. Natural stone, when used in architecture shows just that, as we explore its many different styles and applications.
Stone is known to be a versatile, sturdy, inexpensive and long-lasting material, and has been used in traditional construction systems worldwide for a long time. Its practicality, neutrality, and availability in certain regions are some of its defining traits which, combined with its visual appeal, can contribute to its use in contemporary architectural projects.
At the apogee of the Roman Empire, its territory extended over more than five million square kilometers, between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Rome exercised power over a population of more than 70 million people, which equated to roughly 21% of the world population at the time. In fact, as we have already shown in another article, all roads led to the city of Rome. The great seat of the empire and the material and immaterial heritage left by it is immeasurable, and even today researchers seek to understand its full impact on the current world. From the beginning of its expansion in the 6th century BC until its fall in the year 476 AD, the legacy left by the Romans encompasses areas such as law, plastic arts, Latin (which originated many different languages), systems of government, and, importantly, architecture.
