Kinman Design Tip: Using Natural Stone

Kinman Design Tip:
Using Natural Stone

Natural stone is not only beautiful, but it meets today’s ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ standards. Using it might add a lot to your bottom line and the quality of your designs.

Ancient columns still show beauty, grandeur of the past, and function for today.

In our recent travels to Greece, Egypt and Turkey, we saw streets lined with stone columns, walls, curbs, courtyards, plazas and other buildings. Stone buildings are everywhere — cafes, fruit markets, agoras, theaters, amphitheaters, even fish markets! And all of this is thousands of years old.

We saw grand stone columns, arches, door pediments, obelisks, gates, roads, driveways, and stairs down to the rivers. All of these were built many years ago, without power tools, Bobcats, or cranes. All of these magnificent construction feats were installed with no carbon footprint, and there is no carbon footprint needed to sustain and maintain them even now. These structures continue to bring beauty and functional value to peoples’ lives.

What a return on investment! Eight thousand years of use for those civilizations.

Why do we not embrace this as readily today?
We can do this today if we want. One thing that amazed us is how these structures are incorporated into each site. Every structure and even huge town sections were stitched into the terrain of the mountains, streams, and valleys. They literally embedded their design into the site. The man-made architecture fits into the hills and mountains, and becomes one with the earth.

In Egypt, steps down to the Nile River were stitched into the slope leading to the water where bathhouses and great temples were built. They were an extension of the site, complementing the site, while enhancing it for man’s comforts and adding beauty and function. Much of the preliminary planning was documented, showing how the builders considered the site and how the architect should design and place the structure with respect to the terrain — not changing the terrain but working with it, becoming fluid together.

Stones laid centuries ago still serve as attractive flooring.

How Things are Done Today
Compare this to how today’s typical contractor comes to a virgin site, demolishes the top soil, removes the rocks, flattens the knolls and bluffs, fills in the low spots, and makes it into a flat, stripped site. He then pours footings, a foundation of concrete, and builds a square box on top of it, with windows, doors, shutters, gutters. All of this needs to be maintained, and is manufactured with processes that leave a big carbon footprint. Typically, no regional materials are used on construction. Rather, many materials used are manufactured plastics, metals, Fypon and glass, etc.

Look at today’s available materials. Compare the manufactured lattice arbor at Home Depot with stone columns chiseled out of a nearby quarry. Which is more impressive? Which do we relate to as humans? Which do we feel better being near: A stone arbor with Doric columns or a pressure-treated, pre-made wooden deck that requires annual maintenance and a life span of 10 to 15 years?

Stone Has Staying Power
Consider materials from times past still impress us. The Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and the early amphitheaters were all made of stone. They are timeless, and we still appreciate them. Why are we not embracing these principles today? Why do we only see stone used on courthouses, museums, and other public buildings? We used to use stone on the great train stations all across the United States. They were magnificent.

Eqyptians’ ancient stone steps to the Nile River still give today’s women access to the river.

We used stone all the time because it was the best material and it was readily available everywhere. It was cheap and continues to be a great deal unless you have to transport it from far away. Stay local and your materials will stay cheaper.

Look where we’ve come, Baby! Today, our great technology and research had us evolve from stone, to wood, to steel, to treated wood, to hollow metal doors, to manufactured Styrofoam and Fypon columns and trims. We’ve gotten away from quality and we’ve gotten away from being green.
Now we have people codifying manufactured products as “green” so they can use the word “green” on their products. They still take raw materials, process them, make pollution and yet, because they stay within their codes, they can be called “green.”

Consider using real stone and get really green, in income, quality and environmental “green.”

For more information about expanding your landscape design capabilities and the Kinman Institute, visit www.kinmaninstitute.com, email cynthia@kinmaninstitute.com, or call 617-764-8733 (TREE).