This year's AIA Conference on Architecture featured a one hour long seminar on the World of Natural Stone: Geology, Sourcing, Selection, Testing & Processing.

The seminar was hosted by Vincent Marazita, president & owner of Stone Trends International, a firm specializing in stone consulting for architectural projects, and CES seminars in the natural stone industry since 1986. For the last 16 years, Marazita has been head course tutor for the international architectural conference, "Designing with Stone", held annually in Verona, Italy during the Marmomac trade show, with other similar conferences in the USA, Canada, Italy, England, Hungary, Portugal, Brazil and Egypt.

The session served as an introduction to the world of natural stone for dimension stone uses. Architects were able to acquire the foundational knowledge to design, select, specify and install dimension stone and communicate skillfully with the stone supplier. The seminar covered topics such as basic types of quarries, the three main geological classifications of stone, locations of the major stone supplying countries and various selection criteria and stone testing methods.

The architects learning objectives achieved from the seminar was to review types of quarries and basic geological classifications. Understand possible sources for natural stone materials. Learn about important selection criteria for any design project. Become acquainted with physical and mechincal testing of stone materials.

Above are some scenes from the event.