STONES VENUE is a public shelter built, in Brescia, within a former sand mining site, now transformed into a green area for the city: Parco delle Cave. The project stems from the desire of the Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico, in agreement with the Municipality of Brescia, to build a public project in an area, symbolic of quarrying activity—honoring the main stone varieties that define the territorial and geological identity of the cities of Bergamo and Brescia.

The process leading to the project’s realisation lasted almost five years and involved eleven companies, each of which donated a stone block from its own production, totaling nine different types of stone: three from Bergamo (Arabescato Orobico, Ceppo di Gré, and Nuvolato) and six from Brescia (Breccia Aurora, Breccia Damascata, Breccia Oniciata, Fiorito Chiaro, Marmo Botticino Classico, and Porfido).

The roof structure consists of nine monolithic pillars made from different stone varieties, along with one additional pillar in Marmo Botticino Classico with a Ceppo di Gré graft—a sculpture by artist Francesco Paterlini, symbolizing the union of the two cities within a shared territory. The pillars, anchored to the ground with steel plates, support a steel roof that serves as both a material and architectural memory of the industrial structures that once defined this former mining site.

STONES VENUE has been conceived as a public gathering space where people can find shade and shelter, but also as a place of memory—honoring the territory and all those who, over the centuries, have worked to shape and define it.

STONES VENUE

Type: Public shelter
Location: Brescia
Year: 2019-2024
Sqm: 350

Promoting entity
Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico

Architecture
Associates Architecture

Structure
Opera Mista, Marco Zanardelli

Artistic intervention
Francesco Paterlini

Companies
Cave Carli srl, Cooperativa Operai Cavatori del Botticino, Eredi Martinelli spa, EURO MAS srl, Lombarda Marmi srl, Marini Marmi srl, Marmi Ghirardi srl, Marmi Classic Botticino srl, Porfido F.lli Pedretti srl, Repen Marmi di Bauce Fortunato, Terreni & Coa srl

Partners
Comune di Brescia, Distretto Lapideo Bresciano, Consorzio Cavatori Marmo della Valle di Nuvolera, Consorzio Marmisti Bresciani, Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico

Sponsors
Comune di Botticino, Bresciaferro srl, Green Cantieri, Gruppo Faustini, Loud, Maccaboni Marmi di Maccaboni Pierluigi, Marco snc di Butturini Remo e f.lli, Transvecta srl, BCC Brescia Credito Cooperativo italiano

Suppliers
Bresciaferro srl, Green Cantieri, Gruppo Faustini, Maccaboni Marmi di Maccaboni Pierluigi, Marco snc di Butturini Remo e f.lli, Luciani Trasporti – Servizio