(April 2008) This year’s Marble Architectural Awards (MAA) will be presented on May 31st at the Marmotec in Carrara. Award-winners are chosen by region. This year’s competitors originate from the continents of the southern hemisphere i.e. Australia, Central and South America as well as South Africa. A total of 60 works were submitted according to the fair’s press-release.

Two awards were granted for Interior Design: first the Argentinian Bureau Atelman, Fourcade, Tapia Arquitectos for the highly acclaimed MALBA, The Museum of Lateinamerican Art in Buenos Aires in which Argentinian granite, Carrara White marble from Italy and Crema Marfil from Spain were used in conjunction with German Jura Gold limestone, and second, the Mexican Bureau of Zd+a of Mexico City for the appartment complex Casa del Puente. The architects used local travertine combined with Italian Verde Saint Denise.

Special mention was awarded to the Mexican Bureau of BGP Arguitetura for CASA AV also in the Mexican capitol. For this project local Recinto and Gris Chiluca as well as Greek Thassos White were implemented.

First prize for exterior design went to House of Mourning (Casa de Meditación) by Pascal Arquitectos in Mexico City. The architects used Spanish Grissal granite for their project.

In the category landscapedesign first prize was awarded to Luis da Silva and Kevin Johnston for their notable work around the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature building (NCPL) in Kimberly. They used local stone such as Agra Red, Silver Blue, Pamas Green Rich Autumn and Kimberlite. (see foto above)

Design and Congress

This year’s tradefair (May 29th – June 1st) will place greater emphasis on design and architecture than in previous years. In future, the fair will be held bi-annually alternating with the Stone+tec in Nuremberg and will stage a competition for the „Dressed Stone Award“ open to young designers from all over the world.

Notably „Natural Stone Vision“ in Complex E will house a Cube, black on the exterior and white on the interior containing an over-sized symbolic table, inviting participants to meet, discuss and exchange ideas. At the end of the fair a „Vision“ will be formulated. In April a meeting of experts under the auspices of the Design Week in Milan will take place in Superstudio Più.

The organisers of the tradeshow note that the most important event of the fair is the second International Congress on Dimension Stones (ICDS) from May 29th – 30th organised jointly with the Italian and Brazilian trade-organisations.