stoneCIRCLE

stoneCIRCLE manufactured Susanna Heron's travertine artwork on the façade of 40 Chancery Lane which won the RIBA London and National Awards this year.   Details of the scheme can be found on the RIBA site.

In addition the company supplied the sign for the New Scotland Yard  remodelling which won a RIBA National Award.

stoneCIRCLE produced the marble for Tom Phillips' depiction of the Tyburn Gallows in his design for the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs in Westminster Cathedral.  

The company took the artist's drawing and faithfully redrew it so that each piece and letter could be cut on the waterjet machine.  The pieces were then bonded onto a 10mm carrara backing slab and polished in the workshop before being crated and sent to the site for installation.

Tom Phillips’ commented on the inspiration for the design: “The west wall shows the gibbet at Tyburn as traditionally represented, with the ladders which served it now depicted as ascending above, into the vault. As you face it you are pointing directly towards the site of Tyburn, two miles away at Marble Arch.” 

The wall features several different types of marble: Alpine Jade, Amarello de Negrais, Azul Bahia, Noir St Laurent, Rosso Impero, Bianco Carrara Extra and Porforico Noce. 

When Julian Opie was commissioned to produce an art wall for the new designer hotel, citizenM Tower of London, he turned to stoneCIRCLE to manufacture the frieze.  It was produced in Jordans Basebed Portland Stone and patinated bronze, in a similar technique to Rhona Smith's "An Age, An Instant" in New Burlington Mews.  The Portland Stone was routed and the outline figures were cut from 5mm bronze sheet on the company's waterjet cutting machine and then patinated and glued into place on site.

The company also produced plastic templates for each figure.  These were used to ensure the accuracy of the stone installation was maintained to allow the bronze figures to be fitted perfectly into the recess carved into the stone.

The two walls were 18m and 8m long by 2.4m high and consisted of 23 figures.

Paye Stonework and Restoration, the contractors for the memorial to the dead in the Iraq, Afghanistan and Gulf conflicts chose stoneCIRCLE to produce the monument.  The mammoth structure was designed by Paul Day, a well-known sculptor who also produced the monument for the Battle of Britain.  It commemorates both military and civilian deaths in the regions.  It was unveiled by Her Majesty The Queen on 9th March and is situated in Victoria Embankment Gardens near the MoD building.

The monument was produced in Jordans Basebed Portland Stone and is composed of several blocks, the largest of which weighed 7000kg each.  In fact they were so heavy that stoneCIRCLE's lifting equipment could not cope with them and the company had to buy in a 15 tonne crane to help with the job.  The crane now makes life much easier for the team that unloads the delivery lorries.

The production process meant that once the blocks were rough cut, the monument was dry built in the yard around a stainless steel frame, so that the edges could be pitched by hand to match the artist's requirements. 

Once finished it was dismantled and collected for delivery to the site where Paye Stonework and Restoration re-erected it.

Stone Contractor: Paye Stonework and Restoration Ltd

Stone Manufacturer: stoneCIRCLE www.stone-circle.com, sales@stone-circle.com, 01256 850380

Material: Jordans Basebed Portland Stone

stoneCIRCLE recently worked on a commission from Szerelmey Ltd. for a new mixed office and retail use development at 30 Broadwick Street, Soho which was opened in November 2016.  The façade and lobby featured panels by Sasha Holzer, an artist known for his work carving geometric panels in wood.  stoneCIRCLE laser scanned the ¼ size wooden panels carved by Sasha and then enlarged the 3D files to full size so that its CNC machine could accurately carve them in Jordans Basebed Portland Stone.  Each panel was then carefully finished by hand.  There were 5 internal panels which measured 1960mm in height x 764mm wide and 17 external panels: 12 of which measured 289mm high x 878 wide and the central 5 measured 289mm x 964mm. 

This is the latest of a number of commissions for public art for which the company has worked with artists as varied as Susanna Heron, Julian Opie and Rhona Smith.

stoneCIRCLE, the largest stonemasonry firm in southern England has just launched a brand new website which can be found at www.stone-circle.com.  The visually rich site makes use of their large library of beautiful images.  The site is very much aimed at professionals specifying and working with stone for commercial projects, whilst not forgetting the retail side of the kitchen and bathroom market.  There is a section devoted to case studies of the latest projects in which the company has been involved and a huge image library of materials allowing anyone searching to easily find the right stone for their project.

The site also makes good use of video, allowing customers to take a virtual tour of the business, including showrooms, factory and stone gallery.  Jeff Vanhinsbergh, director of stoneCIRCLE commented “We are very excited about our new site and hope that customers will find it as easy to use and useful as we planned it to be”.

The New Ludgate scheme consists of two buildings nestled between St Paul’s Cathedral and Ludgate Circus. It has won the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) top prize for Commercial Office Building of the Year 2016 and the City of London Building of the Year Award and is shortlisted for the NLA Office Building of the Year Award.

Two New Ludgate is a £260 million development by Land Securities, the UK’s largest commercial property developer. It provides 193,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation and 7,500 sq ft of prime retail space. Two architectural firms were involved Sauerbruch Hutton designed the building and Fletcher Priest designed One New Ludgate and oversaw the scheme.

The main reception for Two New Ludgate has a feature wall in Portland Stone. The curved wall is 8m high and 30m in length. Putney & Wood, the stone contractor’s in-house designers used CAD to detail every stone before creating a visual representation of each elevation. A 3D model was then created as a final check before production. stoneCIRCLE was one of 3 firms involved in manufacturing the frieze and they used the latest CNC processing machinery alongside 3D modelling to ensure pinpoint accuracy. The stones had to be sanded by hand after manufacture to remove machining marks.

Once on site, Putney & Wood’s installation team aligned each textured panel before mechanically fixing them. This was further complicated because the joints flowed with the vertical curvature formation of carved stone panels, while maintaining a consistent 3mm width. The result is a stunning, homogenous effect which has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Architects: Fletcher Priest Architects, Sauerbruch Hutton

Stone Contractor: Putney & Wood

Client: Land Securities

Stonemasons: stoneCIRCLE, Albion Stone, 3D Pierre

StoneCIRCLE recently completed an intricate inlaid polished marble floor.  The floor which was commissioned for a private client in London was produced in Nero Marquina marble inlaid with Venato Fantastico flower petals and stems with Botticino Classico centres to the flowers.  Venato Classico was also used to create feature joints in the design.  The design was produced using stoneCIRCLE’s waterjet cutter.

stoneCIRCLE

01256 850380

sales@stone-circle.com

www.stone-circle.com