Natural stone, one of the most basic building materials of architecture throughout history, has always attracted attention with its sustainability, timelessness and characteristic texture that harbors the unique traces of nature. Today, natural stone, which can be transformed into any desired form with the contribution of technological developments and innovative production methods, is not only used as a building element; it expands its sphere of influence in many different areas of use, from interiors to furniture and decorative accessories. We asked architects and interior designers about the latest usage trends in this indispensable and timeless material of the design world, which types of spaces and products it finds a place in, and which natural stone types are preferred among its characteristic colors, textures and patterns.
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“NATURAL STONES HAVE IMPRESSIVE AESTHETICS, STRENGTH AND ENERGY.”
Ayşegül Güner
Architect
AAD Architects
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Natural stone has been among the materials we have been using the most for 15 years. Natural stones have a very impressive aesthetic, strength and energy as a material. As we use imported stones, we also follow and research the stones extracted from Anatolian quarries. There are stones that our country is very good at, for example travertine. However, we do not prefer such stones with high absorption properties. The materials applied to reduce absorption also kill the naturalness and beauty of the stone. We try to prefer basalt in our projects. We especially like volcanic stones. Their naturalness, the aesthetics of the stone texture on their surfaces and their strength are very impressive. In a project we did in Bodrum, we used a black volcanic stone. We used the same stone on both the walls and the floor. Our client listened to us on this issue and was brave. While the stone we used absorbs the heat during the day and keeps the space cool, in the evenings, the heat it absorbs is returned to you as a warm feeling when you step on it with your bare foot. Volcanic stones have really wonderful structures… All stones are love, they are all unique in their own way. They are all different from each other and as unique as fingerprints. I love to break the stones on the construction site and see the natural texture inside and I always do this.
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“NATURAL STONE IS MUCH MORE SUSTAINABLE THAN MANY OTHER MATERIALS.”
Filiz Cingi Yurdakul
Architect
AURA Design Studio
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Natural stone is much more environmentally sustainable than many other materials. Its timeless appeal and less urge to change with the next trend also make natural stone indispensable for timeless designs. For this reason, we frequently use natural stone materials in our projects. Marble, in particular, is one of our most preferred materials due to its elegance, timelessness and its ability to add luxury and sophistication to designs. It is a great option for use in areas such as bathrooms and kitchens in our homes where the design should be long-lasting.
Mix-match tiles offer us architects unique design possibilities that can be created with a creative alchemy of materials and techniques. Combining metal with marble, unique materials and the masterful precision of water jet cutting different types of stone, these mixed-material tiles add a personalized expression of personality and elegance to every design.
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“YOUR IMAGINATION DEFINES THE LIMITS OF NATURAL STONE USE.”
İrem Arıbaş
Architect
BAB Architects
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Natural stone facilitates an instinctive connection with interiors due to its texture. This connection dates back to the times when people met their basic needs naturally and is transferred to our subconscious from experiences of being in touch with nature. Instinctive harmony is the most important parameter that contributes to volume. After such touches, you never feel the same in the space, this experience always reinforces the feeling of completion. Its longevity creates a signature space within the spatial volume. Thus, you will recognize that volume in any photograph you see in any period of time. Natural stones are materials with a variety of surfaces as well as a variety of products. Even slabs made of the same natural stone can create very different surface effects. With a special work during the modulation of the pieces, you can obtain unique surfaces with various combinations. At the same time, since the texture combinations will never be in a fabricated order, it is the type of material that visually reveals its natural qualities in the most effective and dominant way. Such features give us versatile reasons to use natural stone in our projects. The main areas where we use natural stone are wall coverings, custom-made product surface designs, shelving and storage areas, kitchen countertops and floors. Natural stone cladding material, which has a wide usage area, can now find a place in almost every area with the developing technology. You can turn the use of natural stone material into a work of art by spending the necessary time for processing and in the right hands, without avoiding craftsmanship. In this direction, the limits of your imagination determine the limits of the use of natural stone. First of all, we prefer stone materials that are locally accessible and minimize transportation times. Both our understanding of sustainable architecture and the cost and time curve contribute to this. The main natural stones we use are as follows: Marble, limestone, travertine, granite, basalt, andesite, trachyte, diabase, sandstone, slate, conglomerate and breccia.
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“WE CHOOSE NATURAL STONES WITH TEXTURES AND COLORS THAT FIT THE SPIRIT OF THE PROJECT.”
Aslı Arıkan Dayıoğlu
Interior Designer
DESIGNIST
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Natural stone is one of the oldest building materials in history. In the past, it was used for constructive purposes as it was found in nature or roughly sculpted, but over time, with the development of technology, it was given different forms and started to be used for different purposes in space. Natural stone, whether it is used in building construction or as a cladding material, is not only a necessity but also a material that comes from nature, is healthy, ecological, provides thermal comfort and has aesthetic qualities. Therefore, it has always remained up-to-date in architecture and has received the attention it deserves in living spaces. With the development of technology, natural stone has opened many new doors for us designers in the use of natural stone, thanks to the development of many structural and chemical products and the development of solutions with R&D researches, whether it is the weight of natural stone due to its nature, its potential to hold stains. For example, marble can be compounded and laminated with another product to make it lighter, and it can be used in different sizes in thinner, curvable round surfaces, rather than in 2-3 cm thick slabs. We choose natural stones with textures and colors that fit the spirit of the project. When using natural stones, we do not prefer glossy, we like to use the more textural form of the stone, especially when it has undergone technical processes such as patina, acid reduction, sandblasting, burning, honing, which reveal the textures of the stone more. By using advanced CNC cutting technology, we use the patterns we design ourselves as wall panels by turning natural stones in slabs into three-dimensional.
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“NATURAL STONE IS A MATERIAL THAT PERSONALLY SUPPORTS AND CONTRIBUTES TO OUR OVERALL DESIGN APPROACH”
Dicle Demircioğlu
Architect
Pınar İlki Emekçi
Architect
GMW MİMARLIK
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Above all, natural stone is a material that supports and contributes to our general understanding of design, which we can summarize as sustainable, flexible, in harmony with its environment, timeless and honest. Of course, it has always been a very important material for architecture because it is very durable, robust, easy to maintain and ages well. However, we always think that natural stone is a material with a soul and therefore has an emotional side that touches the human soul. The aesthetic value it adds to a building, a space or a product is actually linked to its originality against standard and mass production and the feeling of “exclusivity” and “specialness” it leaves in users. This must be one of the reasons why natural stone, which has been used with great skill for thousands of years while technology and construction methods are so advanced today, continues to be an important material in modern architecture. We use natural stone in almost all areas such as exterior and interior walls, floor coverings and fixed furniture. We can say that we use it in more special places, especially in places that will be exposed to heavy traffic or will be used by few people. In addition to color, texture and pattern, there are issues such as the strength of each stone, their sizing according to their thickness, density, water absorption properties, abrasion values that we take into account in our selections. In addition, we also have to evaluate logistical issues such as where the project is located, from which quarries the selected stones will be taken, and how they will be transferred to the site in terms of sustainability. Depending on all these, we can make very different choices. If we go through the stones we selected for the Kazakhstan Kyzylorda Korkut Ata Airport project, which is currently under construction; before making material choices, we searched for natural or artificial coating materials that we could use locally, but we learned that there were no materials we could use from the region due to the geographical and economic structure of the region. We then chose colors and textures that would never age in harmony with the colors of the surrounding natural soil and vegetation, which would contribute to the modest and gentle, yet strong and durable appearance we were trying to achieve architecturally. The stones that we could reach with these colors and textures were mined from different geographies, and we chose the right stones that would fit the design by evaluating the alternatives suitable for the budget together with the procurement times.
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“AS ARCHITECTS, WE SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO MORE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION ON NATURAL STONE.”
Esen Akyar Karoğlu
Architect
İGLO Mimarlık
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We can use natural stone and marble on the floors and walls of all the living spaces we design, as well as in some of our furniture designs. The most common application area in furniture is table tops and coffee tables. In addition, natural stone-coated wooden furniture produced with special technologies creates good combinations with the natural materials used on the floor. In our interior design projects, as in all spaces, choosing natural stone or marble in wet areas always adds quality and comfort to the atmosphere of the space. We often use natural stone and marble especially in kitchen and bathroom countertops. We mostly prefer natural stone or marble for items such as windowsills and thresholds. The reason for this is that, in addition to its aesthetic properties, the natural material can be cut as a single piece in the sizes we want. While softer stones can be used indoors, we prefer more durable stones outdoors. We also like to use natural stones in swimming or ornamental pools.
Recycling and reusing used stone instead of using it as a filling material is a growing trend in recent years. As architects, I think we should contribute to the widespread use of such materials and thus contribute to more research and innovation in this field. We choose the colors of natural stone and marble to contrast with the furniture and accessories used in the project. For example, if vibrant colors will be used in interior design elements, we prefer the natural stone used on floors and walls in neutral and pastel colors. The opposite is also possible; that is, we can use neutral colors in furniture and accessories, and vivid and eye-catching colors and patterns in natural stone and especially marble. There are projects where we use the same criterion when choosing the color tone; dark floors, light furniture or vice versa.
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“WE CARE TO USE NATURAL STONE IN OUR ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN DESIGN PROJECTS.”
Ali Özer
Architect
Ahmet Mucip Ürger
Architect
ÖZER \ ÜRGER Mimarlık
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Each natural stone has a unique texture and color. Each one ages in a different way. Its faults give the material character. When you add durability and reusability to these wonderful features, the importance of natural stone for us architects becomes more understandable.
We attach great importance to the use of natural stone in both our architectural and urban design projects. We try to utilize the potentials of natural stone to the fullest by experimenting with different surface treatments and designing different arrangement patterns. We mostly use natural stone as a floor material in urban design projects. However, we also make furniture and wall coverings from stones with different surface treatments. In general, we try to research local stones and use those materials in works that do not have supply problems. But in general, granite and basalt are the ones we use the most. We also use stones that attract attention with their colors such as porphyry and diabase. Travertine is our most preferred stone for wall coverings.
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“NATURAL STONE EVOKES THE CONCEPTS OF UNIQUENESS, TIMELESSNESS, TRANQUILITY, STRENGTH, STABILITY AND DURABILITY.”
Pınar Kayhan
Architect
Pınart Mimarlık
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As architects, it is very valuable for the spaces we design to have a ‘unique atmosphere and identity’. Along with architectural and interior design, material selection plays a critical role in the creation of space fiction. In this sense, the unusual grain structure, surface, unique texture and color of natural stones, as well as the surface treatment, cutting method, application method, flooring direction preferences applied to natural stone are decisive in creating a unique space atmosphere. In this sense, natural stone as a material expresses “uniqueness” for me. In addition to the definition of uniqueness, I can say that natural stone evokes the concepts of timelessness, tranquility, strength, durability and durability.
Today, although stone-like porcelain, polyester-based or synthetic products with various construction chemicals are put forward as natural stone substitutes, it is not possible to capture the unique ambiance created by natural stone in spaces with these materials. We frequently use natural stone in our architectural projects on facades, interiors, living spaces, common areas such as baths, spas, around snow fountains, etc. and wet areas.
In architecture, especially on facades, depending on the architectural fiction and approach, we can use natural stone with different approaches, sometimes to emphasize the mass of the building, sometimes to achieve harmony, sometimes to achieve contrast. Depending on the effect we want to create, we personally intervene in the type, size and surface treatment of the stone we use. We make our natural stone preferences in the interior according to the interior atmosphere we want to capture, the characteristics of the space, the purpose of use, spatial characteristics, the relations between spaces, and the style we have determined with the customer. With a similar approach, we decide on the cutting method, surface treatment, size and laying style of the natural stone in line with the interior design to best reflect the potential of the material. In relaxing common areas such as jacuzzi, pool, spa, we capture unique ambiances with natural stone that gives the user serenity and peace.
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“WE CREATE DESIGNS THAT ESTABLISH A HOLISTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE WITH NATURAL STONE IN OUR ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURES.”
Kerem Yazgan
Architect
Yazgan Mimarlık
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As a material, natural stone expresses closeness to nature to me. When we use natural stone in our architectural structures, we see designs that are more integrated into nature and have a holistic relationship with nature. Thanks to new technologies, we see that natural stone is now used in every field. Depending on technological developments, production methods that push the limits of design have been integrated into natural stone materials. Technological solutions that economically facilitate the use of natural stone on facades have been produced.
On the façade of our recently designed office project, the construction of which was completed in Romania, an application that combines a thin section of natural stone with an insulation material called honeycomb, together with a panel curtain wall system, was made with the advice of our façade consultant. In this system, stone was used more economically and its weight was minimized. Since it is applicable on a large scale, the facade surfaces of the office campus were clad in natural stone.
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