Stone in architecture is as old as civilization itself, yet is just as relevant and in demand 12,000 years later. AIA partner Turkish Stones explores the range of options most suited to modern buildings and how architects are applying age-old attributes to today’s designs.
The use of stone in architecture dates back to the origins of human civilization almost 12,000 years ago. Today, natural stone remains an important material for all architects, thanks to a number of elemental qualities that bring functionality, character, and meaning.
Recent archaeological excavations in Turkey at Göbeklitepe have unearthed a religious site of stone monoliths with figurative engraving dating to 10,000-9,000 BC that we can say is one of the first examples of architecture at the dawn of human civilization. The design of these monoliths—their large size, basic structural approach, and expressive capabilities—shows us that the physical properties of stone have great impact on the architectural settings, a quality that can be applied in contemporary architecture today with similar results.
Incorporating stone into architecture requires understanding the different types of natural stone available. Here’s a look at some of the options of natural stone from Turkey, which offers a wide range of types such as marble, travertine, limestone, basalt, dolomite, onyx, and sandstone, and their applications in architecture.
Marble in architecture
With its unique appearance and durability, marble provides an ideal way to add significance and substance to a space. For example, marble from Turkey, available in a wide selection of colors and types, can be used especially as floor and wall surfaces applied with design using tiling and coursing geometries.
The extensive range of Turkish marble allows architects to combine different colors of marble with unique natural veining patterns, such as Elazig Cherry or Toros Black, to create one-of-a-kind interiors.
For outdoor settings, the more homogenous color palette of Turkish marbles such as Anatolian Beige and Marmara Marble provides spatial and visual continuity while allowing for variations in surface treatments (e.g., polished, honed, or flamed) to visually define the applied volume.
One example of these design methods is the famed Hagia Sophia Byzantine church in Istanbul built in 6th century AD. Inside, the Hagia Sophia floor and wall tiling combine with decorative elements such as column capitals made with different marbles at different scales, resulting in a vast spatial synthesis of space, light, and color.
Today, marble from Turkey continues these traditions of stone architecture using a range of marbles and in combination with modern technical design capabilities, interactive processes, and high design and engineering standards.
AT THE ARMAGGAN SHOP IN NURUOSMANIYE, ISTANBUL, THE GEOMETRY OF THE PINWHEEL PATTERNS OF THE FLOORING ARE MATCHED WITH THE VEINS OF THE EMPERADOR MARBLE IN SHADES OF BROWN AND BEIGE. (ARCHITECT: TONER MIMARLIK; IMAGE: MIRHAN BILIR)
Travertine in architecture
Travertine from Turkey is another notable natural stone used in the history of architecture. Like marble, travertine features veining and patterns. Because it is a softer stone and costs less than marble, travertine also can be fabricated into unique forms and shapes using digital fabrication tools such as CNC routers.
Travertine is suited to both the exterior and interior of buildings, as can be seen in the remains of the Roman city of Hierapolis dating from the 2nd-3rd century AD. Located in what is now Denizli, Turkey, the source of much of the travertine used throughout the world, the Greco-Roman city’s streets, arcades, and agoras were all created from travertine and still exist today.
We can see a similar approach to using Turkish travertine at the College of Media and Communication- Northwestern University in Qatar, a contemporary building designed by Antoine Predock Architects (APA) and built in 2017. APA explained that they used travertine to organize a linked series of urban spaces in natural stone, similar to what we have seen in classical examples. “The structure’s thickly textured stone walls protect inner courtyards from the harsh desert climate,” the firm said. “The building gestures calligraphically, creating a narrative interweaving of courtyards and open atria allowing a spatial progression out through the building, the courtyard, and to the Gardens.”
The fabrication of the large-format, split-face travertine blocks applied mechanically to the steel façade scaffold in the design by Antoine Predock, AIA, shows the Turkish Stone sectors’ ability to apply different approaches combining industrial, digital, and handcraft.
Limestone, dolomite, basalt, and andesite in architecture
A wide range of other natural Turkish stones is available to meet different needs for color, physical properties, hardness, and porosity.
For example, Turkish limestone, another softer natural stone, can be carved quite easily. This can be seen in the classical Ottoman architecture of Mimar Sinan such as the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul from the 16th century, which uses the local Küfeki limestone in carved masonry features in the custom architectural order of columns and domes.
Turkish limestone is also an affordable natural stone that allows for carved and engraved design motifs to be explored using the digital fabrication technologies available today.
Dolomite, a harder stone than marble, similar to granite, is also known as Marmara White and is found in the Istanbul region. Marmara White is known for its dramatic white color and durability, and it was used extensively in different shades of white and red in Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman architecture and sculpture.
Finally, with Turkey’s seismic and volcanic geography, cooling lava created igneous stones such as basalt and andesite. Extremely durable and resistant to corrosion and pollution as an ecologically oriented natural stone, basalt and andesite are used primarily as a pavement stone but can also be applied to façades in cold climates and harsh urban settings.
For example, architect Nizam Kizilsencer, AIA, selected pollution-resistant andesite for an office building in Brooklyn, mechanically applying a light composite panel of gray andesite on an aluminum honeycomb substrate to the façade. Architect Gokhan Avcioglu, AIA, uses a type of basalt sculpturally in new hotel projects for the cold climate of the high plateau of the Cappadocia tourist destination in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey.
LOCAL BASALT VOLCANIC STONE WAS CARVED TO GENERATE ORIGINAL MASONRY ELEMENTS FOR THE CAPPADOCIA KEPEZ HOTEL AND RESORT IN TURKEY’S TOURIST DESTINATION OF CAPPADOCIA. (ARCHITECT & IMAGE: GAD)
Text by Gökhan Karakuş. Turkish Stones is being promoted by the Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Association (İMİB), a professional non-profit association that has overseen all export activities in Turkey’s minerals sector since 1976. For more information on architecture in stone, visit www.turkishstones.org.
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