22.10.2024

Stone+tec 2024 on course for growth

Building design

With over 250 exhibitors, Stone+tec is on course for growth. Credits: Stone+tec

From June 19 to 22, 2024, the time has come again: the biennial Stone+tec natural stone trade fair will take place in Nuremberg. The trade fair is on course for growth: with 250 different exhibitors, it is particularly large this year. Tickets for Stone+tec 2024 are already available online.

Stone+tec is the largest trade fair for natural stone in the German-speaking world. Every year, it attracts visitors from all over Europe who are experts in the field. For four days, the focus is on topics such as materials, gravestones and the latest technology. A new addition is the “Design with tiles” theme area.

The trade fair is on course for growth: over 250 different exhibitors are expected this year. The previous event’s space allocation has already been reached. In the natural stone sector, 40 companies have already registered for Stone+tec 2024, including Bamberger Natursteinwerk, Franken Schotter, Magna Naturstein, Nikolaus Bagnara, Roll Natursteine, African Stone Selection and Medmar. One of the largest product areas at Stone+tec 2024 is the “Equipment for professionals” area, which brings together tools and machinery.

The Stone+tec trade fair sees itself as an international competence center for natural stone and stone technology. The program includes thematic focuses such as materials, materials, gravestones and “Design with tiles”. There is also a comprehensive overview of the latest technology in machinery, equipment and tools, many of which can be seen live at the trade fair. This area, called “Equipment for professionals”, is an indispensable highlight of Stone+tec for stonemasons.

AFAG is organizing the Stone+tec trade fair for the second time this year. The trade fair is aimed at all professional stone processors from sectors such as construction, cemeteries, monuments and design. Property developers, planners and architects are also part of the target group. The accompanying congress offers the opportunity for further professional training in all aspects of working with natural stone.

A new feature is the addition of Tile+tec. This trade fair for tiles will accompany Stone+tec 2024 for the first time. It will feature exhibitions and offers relating to design with tiles. The open stage in the Nuremberg exhibition halls will host specialist presentations on all aspects of tiles and natural stone. On two days of the fair, the trade magazine “F+P Fliesen und Platten” will also be holding a tile seminar for all visitors. This will focus on sustainability, barrier-free construction, the digitalization of the trade and the processing of large-format tiles.

Stone+tec 2024 will take place from 19 to 22 June 2024 at the Exhibition Center Nuremberg and will begin at 9:30 a.m. each day. From June 19 to 21, the accompanying congress will also take place, which serves to provide further training; congress tickets are also available online. The complete congress program can be viewed online and is particularly exciting for architects who work a lot with stone or want to learn more about natural stone.

On Wednesday, June 19, the focus will be on “Solid building constructions made of natural stone for a sustainable future”. Thursday will also be about solid building structures, but also about corrosion problems. The Federal Association of German Stonemasons will discuss these using examples such as the Church of St. Sebald in Nuremberg.

And on Friday, the trade fair will focus on how generations Y and Z see the future of the cemetery, with futurologist Matthias Horx and psychologist Michael Lehofer both on site at Stone+tec 2024 to develop a picture of the future.

Although the general situation in the construction industry in Germany is tense, many stone processing companies have plenty to do. They are looking for solutions to increase productivity in the workshop and on the construction site. Franziska Petri, Managing Director of

machine and tool supplier König in Karlsruhe, characterizes the current situation as challenging: “Investments are being made more cautiously and carefully. But our industry is so diverse in what it does that there will always be areas of growth.”

Matthias Baumann, Managing Director of machine manufacturer Burkhardt-Löffler from Bayreuth and Langenaltheim, also looks to the future with confidence. Blanket requests for new machines are on the decline, with industry and tradespeople instead making specific enquiries for specific requirements: “Users have very precise ideas about the equipment and functions they need for their production. This is where our customized machine construction proves to be very advantageous,” explains Matthias Baumann.

While the skilled trades want more and more automation due to the shortage of skilled workers, even closer networking between processing stations is at the top of the agenda in the stone industry. The increasing proportion of in-house production among stonemasons means that machines are once again becoming more versatile and can process not only slabs but also thicker workpieces. This will become clear in the exhibition area at Stone+tec 2024.

AFAG Messen is a private organizer from Nuremberg that took over Stone+tec in 2022. Previously, NürnbergMesse was responsible for the event. Stone+tec has been held at the Nuremberg exhibition center since 1979 and AFAG has confirmed that this will continue to be the case. With the handover of the trade fair to the company, it has been ensured that the gravestone section in particular will remain. Stone+tec last took place in 2022.

Stone+tec 2024 is now back and is looking forward to a successful trade fair and conference in June. Register now!

03.05.2021

Design, Translated: Branchennews

New Online Store for Grave Sites

Building design

The online store “Grabkauf Online,” which offers themed gravesites at the Ohlsdorf Park Cemetery, is the first of its kind in Germany. Photo: Hamburg Cemeteries

Hamburg’s cemeteries have jointly developed an online store for purchasing gravesites. This allows interested individuals to conveniently browse the wide variety of options from the comfort of their own homes on their computers.

The “Grabkauf Online” online store for themed gravesites at the Ohlsdorf Park Cemetery is the first of its kind in Germany. Photo: Hamburg Cemeteries

Especially in these times, when direct contact must be avoided, the importance of online services is increasing significantly—particularly those that eliminate the need for in-person visits. Hamburger Friedhöfe has now developed a shop for purchasing graves online. The shop offers 13 different themed burial plots at Ohlsdorf Cemetery—ranging from the wildflower garden to the Ohlsdorf Forest of Peace to the crypt.

This allows interested individuals to conveniently browse the variety of options from the comfort of their own home on a computer. Photo galleries and videos showcase the beauty of the sites. People can also view the sites and seek advice with family members or friends, even from a distance. This can provide inspiration to many who have previously been reluctant to address the topic.

Of course, it is still possible to visit the facilities at Ohlsdorf Cemetery in person. A digital map is provided for each burial plot, making it easier to locate them within the cemetery. Prices are also listed. The burial plots are offered as part of pre-need planning. This means that anyone who purchases a burial plot pays the price in effect today, regardless of when they use it. Upon purchase, the plot is reserved for an unlimited period. From the time of death, it may then be used for 25 years. However, all options can also be purchased in the event of a specific death.

You can find more information here.

16.12.2024

Hotel

Tokyo, Andaz Hotel

Building design

In the “Andaz Hotel” on the top floors of the second highest tower in Tokyo, the view is the main attraction. Despite the owners, an American hotel chain, the decor focuses on local color.

The view over Tokyo’s sea of buildings is familiar from the movie “Lost in Translation”. The view is also the main attraction at the Andaz Hotel on the top floors of the city’s second-highest tower. Despite the owners, an American hotel chain, the décor focuses on local color.

The topographically highest point in Tokyo, Atago Mountain, measures exactly 26 meters. In the past, this height was enough to see as far as Tokyo Bay – today, however, high-rise buildings obscure the view from the elevation on which the Atago Shrine has been attracting worshippers since 1603.

One of the newest towers in the city is the “Toranomon Hills Tower” by Nihon Sekkei Architects: 52 storeys high, it stretches into the sky, its floor plan reminiscent of a rhombus with partly rounded and partly chamfered corners. At 235 meters, Tokyo’s highest wedding chapel nestles triangularly under the sloping, triangular roof.

However, the tower cannot lay claim to the superlative “tallest building”, as the “Tokyo Midtown Tower”, which was completed in 2007, towers 13 meters above the Toranomon Hills Tower. However, static or structural problems were not the reason for the unbroken height record: the high-rise is so close to the Imperial Palace that additional storeys would have disturbed the privacy of the imperial family and were not approved.

But even without looking into the royals’ gardens and chambers, the view from the top six floors of the “Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills” hotel is hard to beat. New York designer Toni Chi and Tokyo-born interior designer Shinichiro Ogata have therefore focused the hotel rooms, which are at least 50 square meters in size by Japanese standards, entirely on the view: From the bed, from the sofa and from the desk, the view falls down to the city through the completely glazed front.

But it would be a shame not to take a look at the rooms too; the walls are clad in off-white panels covered with traditional shoji paper and set off with dark Hokkaido walnut wood, while sliding wooden walls transform the hallway into a dressing room in an ingenious and space-saving way.

Local materials and quotes from Japanese architecture and art history were also used in the elevators, lobby, spa and restaurant and interpreted in a contemporary way. The boutique hotel brand Andaz, which has opened its 12th hotel worldwide and its first in Japan with the Andaz Tokyo, places great value on authenticity: while Marcel Wanders designed the Andaz Amsterdam, for example, the Andaz Tokyo promises “Japanese experiences” for guests and locals.

The ambitious concept tolerates the inevitable breaks inherent in the term authenticity per se: the so-called Kumiko mural, puzzled together from thousands of wooden pieces, fits just as well into the almost six-metre-high hotel lobby on the 51st floor as electric light into the historic Atago shrine.

Address

Andaz Tokyo
Toranomon Hills 3-20-16-2F Nishi-Azabu Minato-ku
Tokyo 106-0031 Japan
Tel.+81 3 6830 1234, Fax.+81 3 6830 1211
www.andaztokyo.com