This book is made up of contributions dealing with heritage stones from different countries around the world. The stones are described, as well as their use in vernacular and contemporaneous architecture. Heritage stones are those stones that have special significance in human culture. Examples include some very important stones that have been either neglected because they are no longer extracted, or stones that have great significance in commercial terms but knowledge of their national and/or international heritage has not been well documented. In this collection of articles, we have tried to spread awareness of architectural heritage around the world, the natural stones that have been used in its construction, and the need to preserve historical quarries that once provided the source of such stones. Historical quarries are linked to regional culture and tradition. Because of the specific technical and aesthetical characteristics of heritage stones, which have lasted for centuries, these historical quarries should be preserved to be able to use the stones for the proper restoration of monuments and historical buildings to avoid negative actions that can be observed in many places in the restoration of buildings, which are some times part of World Heritage sites. The final intention of this book is to continuosly grow the interest on this fascinating subject of heritage stones.

This book is made up of contributions dealing with heritage stones from different countries around the world. The stones are described, as well as their use in vernacular and contemporaneous architecture. Heritage stones are those stones that have special significance in human culture. Examples include some very important stones that have been either neglected because they are no longer extracted, or stones that have great significance in commercial terms but knowledge of their national and/or international heritage has not been well documented. In this collection of articles, we have tried to spread awareness of architectural heritage around the world, the natural stones that have been used in its construction, and the need to preserve historical quarries that once provided the source of such stones. Historical quarries are linked to regional culture and tradition. Because of the specific technical and aesthetical characteristics of heritage stones, which have lasted for centuries, these historical quarries should be preserved to be able to use the stones for the proper restoration of monuments and historical buildings to avoid negative actions that can be observed in many places in the restoration of buildings, which are some times part of World Heritage sites. The final intention of this book is to continuosly grow the interest on this fascinating subject of heritage stones.

The weathering of historical buildings and, indeed, of monuments and sculptures of natural stone is a problem that has been encountered for hundreds of years. However a dramatic increase in deterioration in the structure of our built heritage has been observed during the past century. To understand the complex interaction that the stone in a building suffers with its near environment (the building) and the macro environment (the local climate and atmospheric conditions) requires an interdisciplinary approach and the application of many disciplines. Climate change over the next 100 years is likely to have a range of direct and indirect impacts on many natural and physical environments, including the built environment. The protection of our architectural heritage has both cultural and historical importance, as well as substantial economic and ecological value. Large sums of money are being spent world-wide on measures for the preservation of monuments and historical buildings. The past few decades has seen an unprecedented level of research activity in this area, the result of which is often difficult to access and are summarized in the new edition of STONE IN ARCHITECTURE. The 4th edition of Stone in Architecture: Properties, Durability, is a sophisticated and thorough exploration of stone – its properties, performance and conservation – in monumental contexts. The current editors, Siegfried Siegesmund and Rolf Snethlage, note the pioneering work of Erhard Winkler who wrote the first edition in 1973 when so little information could be found in the literature on the subject. This new edition, also published by Springer, nearly doubles the size of Winkler’s 1994 effort. If you are familiar with the field and need to know little more than this statement, you can put aside this review and go buy the book. George Wheeler, Department of Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The weathering of historical buildings and, indeed, of monuments and sculptures of natural stone is a problem that has been encountered for hundreds of years. However, a dramatic increase in deterioration in the structure of our built heritage has been observed during the past century. To understand the complex interaction that the stone in a building suffers with its near environment (the building) and the macro environment (the local climate and atmospheric conditions) requires an interdisciplinary approach and the application of many disciplines. Climate change over the next 100 years is likely to have a range of direct and indirect impacts on many natural and physical environments, including the built environment. The protection of our architectural heritage has both cultural and historical importance, as well as substantial economic and ecological value. Large sums of money are being spent world-wide on measures for the preservation of monuments and historical buildings. The past few decades has seen an unprecedented level of research activity in this area, the results of which are often difficult to access and are summarized in the new edition of STONE IN ARCHITECTURE.

Heritage stones are those stones that have been used for many years, even centuries, to build the historic buildings and monuments of places around the world. Some of these stones are still being used for construction, but others are no longer used, either because quarries were exhausted or closed or because architects and constructors do not know about their particularities and importance. Several scientific papers discuss many of these stones, and a number of papers are currently being prepared, but this book is the first to emphasize the importance and significance of natural stone in the construction of a city, Salamanca, recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1988. In light of this recognition, Salamanca has a duty to preserve all historic buildings that make up the city by restoring those that are starting to deteriorate centuries after their construction. This book describes the buildings, the stones (all quarried centuries ago in the surrounding area), and the stone quarries, some of them inactive for many years, but that should still allow extraction of blocks on demand to restore and replace damaged specimens in the buildings, preserving the very character that saw the city receive recognition by UNESCO in the first place. There are many other places around the world that should follow this initiative and disseminate the importance of their heritage stones. This book will be of interest to professionals and academics in Geology, Engineering, architectural and artistic work in stone, both construction and conservation, but also to the general public.

There are many UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany. Most of them are built with natural stones. These sites are commonly presented to the public with a lot of information regarding historical, cultural and artistic aspects. Mostly, there is no focus on the main building material if it concerns natural stones. This work aims to show that it is precisely the natural stone that lends the sites their distinctive character. The used stones demonstrate the context and the interaction with the geology of the surrounding countryside as well as possibilities of transport and treatment. They reflect the culture and society at the time of the building phases. The second part of the work presents the most important stones that were used at these sites, along with their occurrences, aspects of quarrying in historical times and of course their petrographical, mineralogical and technical features. It is shown how these features influence the weathering of the stones and how restoration of stones is carried out. The book will serve as a useful source book for geologists, archaeologists, architects, representatives of the natural stone industry, historians and cultural heritage management professionals specifically, and for academic and nonacademic communities, travelers and tourism industry operators in general.

The readers of the first two editions of Stone: Properties, Durabi lity in Man's Environment, were mostly architects, restoration architects of buildings and monuments in natural stone, profes sionals who sought basic technical information for non-geologists. The increasing awareness of rapidly decaying monuments and their rescue from loss to future generations have urged this writer to update the 1973 and 1975 editions, now unavailable and out of print. Due to the 20-year-Iong interval, extensive updating was necessary to produce this new book. The present edition concentrates on the natural material stone, as building stone, dimension stone, architectural stone, and decorative field stones. Recently, the use of stone for thin curtain walls on buildings has become fashionable. The thin slabs exposed to anew, unknown complexity of stresses, resulting in bowing of crystalline marble, has attracted much negative pUblicity. The costs of replacing white slabs of marble on entire buildings with its legal implications have led construction com panies into bankruptcy. We blame many environmental problems on acid rain. Does acid rain really accelerate stone decay that much? Stone preservation is being attempted with an ever-increasing number of chemicals applied by as many specialists to save crumbling stone. Chemists filled this need during a time of temporary job scarcity, while the general geologist missed this opportunity; he was too deeply involved in the search for fossil fuels and metals.