Elegant Marble Veins
Located on the edges of the City, London’s financial district, 100 Bishopsgate is an ambitious mixed-use design from the London-based Allies and Morrison practice that rises 37 floors with offices, restaurants, bars and shops. The architects were amazed during a visit to Lasa Marmo’s Acqua Bianca quarry in Alto Adige and so decided the veined white marble, in a smoky grey hue, had to be recreated “naturally” in the design for the building’s imposing entrance hall (30 m long and 8 m high). For Lasa Marmo this was an incredibly demanding project that forced the company to prepare meticulously and work incredibly precisely to meet the architectural practice’s demand, that is the interior should recreate a natural marble wall. Plus, the architects wanted the veins to produce a special effect through a 30° angle on the main wall and a horizontal effect on the side walls. Given the explicit requirements for the project, before cutting any of the marble slabs - Lasa Venato®™ was selected - the company turned to Euromarble to create a digital simulation of the cuts and the subsequent surface composition using a computerized process called digital dry lay. The digitalization of this process was a clear sign of Lasa Marmo’s determination to keep abreast of the times, but it also allowed the architects to see and select the materials on their computers. This brought substantial time savings and cut waste. The next step for the architects was to physically confirm their digital decisions by heading to the site for the classical dry lay method. The slabs were painstakingly selected one by one to create the illusion of continuous veins from one slab to the next. Obviously, in such a process the actual lay has to be unbelievably precise and so Lasa Marmo turned to another partner company, Szerelmey. The final effect was to use a method called sandwaterjet and then brushing to leave the marble feeling ever so slightly rough to the touch, with a majestic, elegant look. The company’s intervention has recently won the “Pinnacle Award of Excellence”.
LASA MARMO
Via del Marmo, 4 - I - 39023 LASA (BZ)
Tel. +39 0473 626624
E-mail: [email protected] - www.lasamarmo.it/bishopsgate