Natural stone, and especially marble, are the top choices of materials in design, art and architecture. Always unique, available in many versions and resistant, marble is used to create projects and objects all over the world. We often hear it said that Italian marble is among...

Breccia is a clastic sedimentary rock composed of large angular fragments of rocks or minerals (over 2mm millimetres in diameter) cemented together by a matrix of smaller particles that can be similar or not to the composition of its fragments and a mineral cement that bonds the...

The chestnut (Castanea spp.) is a fruit tree belonging to the Fagaceae family, which Include several varieties.  The main species are the European chestnut (Castanea spp.), the Japanese (Castanea crenata.) and that of the United States of America (Castanea dentata),...

It is the year 2021 and COVID-19 is still lingering upon our heads. According to the European Federation of Parquet Producers (FEP), despite so much uncertainty, the timber market remained stable in 2020, exceeding the 76 million square meter threshold. In the wake of a...

In today’s busy world that is full of frequent change, the only way to add value to your home and ensure that it will last is to use products and practices that are sustainable. One of these products and practices is the use of natural stone tiles for your floors or walls. The...

Walnut is a fruit tree and there are two main species of walnut tree, National or Blonde walnut (Juglans regia) and Black or Canaletto walnut (Juglans nigra). Both species are sources of timber. Walnut is a very dense timber species that is popularly used for flooring, furniture,...

Zellige tiles, also known as Zilij or Zelij, are traditionally handcrafted tiles made with natural clay extracted from Morocco. The clay is kneaded with water, before being moulded by hand, and naturally dried and fired in a kiln. At that point, glass enamel is applied to the...

Smugglers who hid millions of pounds worth of heroin in shipments of stone are due to be sentenced on 11 May by a court in the Netherlands.  According to police, shipments would arrive in containers at the docks in Antwerp from where the drugs would get smuggled into England,...

The 150-year-old Houses of Parliament (the Palace of Westminster) are falling apart faster than they can be fixed, with the cost of maintenance and ongoing works doubling to £127 million a year during the three years to 2018/19. That helped convince a review of the proposed...

Olive trees (Olea europaea in Latin) are very long-lived trees, which produce a hard and compact wood, with intricate veins. They are mostly known for their fruits, from which we extract oil, whose uses are limitless. Olive trees are as old as Mediterranean Sea and its culture....