The Surface Design Show is a London-based Trade Fair scheduled to take place from February 9th to 11th 2016. Its focus is on surfaces. The link is among our list of trade fairs for architecture and construction.

Xiamen will be home to the „Cross Strait Financial Centre”, planning comes from London-based TFP Farrells Architecture. The name of the complex reveals its purpose: an iconic gateway with a panoramic view to the adjacent 350 km distant Island of Taiwan and its capital Taipei.

Garden ideas for natural stone by German-based Steinakzente Company (German).

Gargoyles and other stone objects can be viewed on Gárgula Gótica’s website (Portuguese).

Alberto Campo Baeza’s official building in the Spanish city of Zamora won a BigMat International Architecture Award (1, 2).

„Little Gerla“ is the name Italian Designers Paolo Ulian and Moreno Ratti call their „40×40“-collection vases. The concept carves tile refuse by means of a water jet leaving no residue pieces but producing a new product.

Are some rock formations and stone figures in Sussex county, USA a natural phenomenon or were they placed there by an earlier civilization for astronomical or ritualistic purposes? The question is discussed in the New Jersey Herald.

A stone sculpture should be erected to commemorate a meteorite which hit the UK on Christmas Eve 50 years ago, campaigners say.

Since mid 2014 new standards of sustainability in natural stone production in short ANSI/NSC 373 have been in place in the USA. TexaStone is the first company to pass the accreditation procedure, Lyons Sandstone is currently in the process of accreditation. The heads of both companies tell of their experience in the current issue of Building Stone Magazine (pp. 59ff) (1, 2).

Video of the Month: HQ Architects have erected sun-screens in the shape of giant flowers which open when pedestrians pass by (Video, 1).

(04.01.2016, USA: 01.04.2016)