Get in on the action in this thriving market

Building design

Immenstaad / Lake Constance

For stonemasons with access to CNC machining centers, garden and patio furniture is a market where they can attract new customers with unique creations.

A unique piece of natural stone outdoor furniture, first unveiled at the 2018 International Furniture Fair in Cologne: To mark Hadi Teherani’s 50th company anniversary, furniture manufacturer Draenert commissioned the design of this marble chaise longue for the Draenert Art Edition. Photo: Draenert GmbH, Immenstaad / Lake Constance

Investments in modern CNC technology pay off. Even intricately designed furniture and other workpieces can be manufactured economically and with precision. The latest generation of control technology, drives, and software offers virtually unlimited possibilities. CNC machining centers equipped in this way offer stoneworkers maximum flexibility when milling 3-D contours, for example. Furniture manufacturing in general is a natural sales market here, but the garden and landscaping sector is currently booming in particular—an area where stonemasons can profitably participate not only with floor tiles but also with machine- and handcrafted outdoor furniture.

Even before the pandemic, private gardens and their decorative design were already in vogue. The travel and social distancing restrictions accompanying the virus have further intensified the desire for a private garden. Pool builders reported order books just as full last year as did garden and landscape contractors. And there’s no sign that this will change in 2021. Providers of outdoor kitchens, garden furniture, and fire tables—as well as other, mostly gas-powered fire features for outdoor spaces—are also benefiting from this trend. After all, fire conveys warmth, safety, and a sense of security, making it a perfect fit for the “Corcooning” era (a buzzword for “cocooning” in the age of COVID-19). This could represent an interesting new business opportunity both for stonemasonry businesses that specialize in processing thin stone and ceramic slabs and for those that have selected their machinery with an eye toward producing solid stonework.

Read in STEIN 3/2021 how selected companies are tackling this challenge and which machines they’re using.

22.01.2025

Project

Light and shadow in Cologne

Building design

L.-Fritz-Gruber-Platz is only about 400 meters away from Cologne Cathedral as the crow flies. For its design, the Düsseldorf-based firm scape Landschaftsarchitekten took up the theme of photography. The result is a play of light and shadow.

L. Fritz Gruber Square is located just 400 meters from Cologne Cathedral as the crow flies, right next to the Kolumba Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, which was built in 2007 according to plans by Peter Zumthor. The square is named after the photographic historian and journalist Leo Fritz Gruber. From 1945, he worked as a photographer for the British Army of the Rhine. This passion never left him. The Düsseldorf-based firm scape Landschaftsarchitekten therefore took up the theme of photography for the design of the square. A play of light and shadow creates a two-dimensional image of the large maple trees on the square. The square is bordered by listed facades from the 1920s and 1960s. Typical local basalt cobblestones surround a rectangular area of light-colored concrete slabs with an aspect ratio of 6:9 (small picture format), which is framed by three white cuboid benches.

Shadow plays are created on this projection surface, which is illuminated at night by a luminaire hanging above the square in the shape of a hollow sphere. Objects that cross its beam of light create sharply defined shadows on the paving. The functional principle is similar to that of a projector: a hollow body with a matt black inner surface and a point-shaped light source, the opening of which is dimensioned at the bottom so that the focal point beams precisely trace the surface of the square.

L.-Fritz-Gruber-Platz, Cologne

Client: City of Cologne – Civil Engineering Department
Open space: scape Landschaftsarchitekten, Düsseldorf
Project management: Hiltrud M. Lintel, Rainer Sachse
Collaboration: Jan Heimann, Judith Pfahler, Markus Hilgers, Bernd Nengel
Competition: 2007, 1st prize
Completion: September 2012
Area: 2,200 square meters
Costs: 570,000 euros

19.12.2024

A stroke of art-historical luck

Building design

The Gothic sacristies of the parish church of St. Quirinus in Tegernsee are to be restored. Many eras have left their mark on St. Quirinus, which was the monastery church of the most important Benedictine abbey in Upper Bavaria until 1803.

The sacristy used today dates from the Baroque period, but the two Gothic sacristies with their vaults and rare gray-on-gray painting are a stroke of art-historical luck. These are now used as storerooms, albeit for valuable items from the monastery or handicraft objects such as candlesticks or figurines.

The approval of the preliminary investigation for the restoration means that the sacristies will now be cleared out so that they can be made accessible to the public at some point in the future. Church historian Roland Götz has taken a closer look at the sacristies and knows that their preservation is a stroke of luck. However, fire protection still needs to be clarified, as there are no escape routes. As the church is under the same roof as the Bräustüberl, the castle distillery, the grammar school and the brewery, all those responsible and the owners must first come to an agreement. How much all the measures would cost is now to be found out in advance.