The White Marble Project.

During the winter semester 2022/23, we have been exploring the potential of white Lasa marble, which is a 400-million-year-old metamorphic stone from the Jennwand massif of the Vinschgau Nörderberg, located on the edge of the Stilfserjoch National Park.

As one of the most valuable natural resources of South Tyrol, which is otherwise rather poor in mineral raw materials, white marble has been quarried in the Vinschgau Valley for centuries, especially in Laas and Göflan. It has been exported by the ton as building material and decorative stone all over the world and yet it only represents a limited deposit that will be exhausted within just a few generations.

Because the marble from Laas shines purely crystalline and white in a way which is hardly surpassed by any other in the world and is also considered to be significantly more weather-resistant, it is quite timeless as a material and hardly subject to any fashion. This white natural stone has helped shape the region and is still more of a cultural rather than economic resource. Consequently, the present and near future of the cultural landscape and marble industry in the Vinschgau Valley will also depend on its environmentally friendly and sustainable extraction.

Over the last three months, we have been studying the marble industry and its value chains of material extraction, processing and waste management on site at our project partner Lasa Marmo: The mining of marble in the quarries, transporting blocks weighing tons down to the valley, cutting them into slabs and products of various levels of marble quality in the factory as well as the resulting residual materials like rubble, sand and white marble dust.

However, the real challenge for the students was to develop a comprehensive and critical understanding of marble as a building material and limited natural resource in order to come up with responsible and relevant design proposals.

Klaus Hackl, January 2023

The White Marble Project was kindly supported by Lasa Marmo and Berufsfachschule für Steinbearbeitung Laas.