What’s the sense of quarrying large blocks of natural stone and then cutting them into small slabs or bricks, reassembling them and gluing them back together on site to form load-bearing elements? Why not use natural stone in the form of large, massive building components?

With the Residenza dei Minerali, Marzio Maurino wanted to use stone for load-bearing elements not only to avoid unnecessary work but also because hard stones such as granite or gneiss are characterized by an extraordinarily high compressive strength, which is considerably higher than that of concrete or brick.

Details of the Residenza dei Minerali

• Each of the 9 large luxury apartments is named after a precious stone, which is why the building is called the Mineral Residence, “Residenza dei Minerali”.
• The building consists of 106 monolithic load-bearing elements made of Maggia Allegro® granite, 270 cm high, 100 cm wide and 30 cm thick. They weigh approximately 2.7 tons each.
• A double wall crosses the center of the building longitudinally, dividing the surface of each floor into two living halves, on the sides of which are the technical walls (electrical, heating, ventilation and sanitary lines).
• In total, for the whole complex including the exterior, about 1300 tons of natural stone from Ticino were used.