“For a long time I've thought how wonderful it would be to be able to use all the off-cuts you see lying around in quarries and stone yards, but no one had come up with a way of doing it,” said John Pawson.

With his Stone House, a temporary installation designed for the 2010 Fuorisalone, the architect was the first to experiment with the Lithoverde texture, produced by Salvatori. The Italian company is the first in the world to produce a stone cladding composed of 99% waste materials and 1% natural resin used as a glue.

Salvatori has been able to transform into an economic and environmental advantage a problem of widespread inefficiency in the construction industry, often made by small manifacturer who have inadequate and inefficient machinery. For this reason Lithoverde has obtained the SCS (Scientific Certification Systems) certification for green building materials. Because of its characteristics, the materials also help to give buildings a high score on the LEED rating scale, which defines the sustainability of construction.

However, the brand has not only focused on the optimization of the production process, but has paid attention to the aesthetic qualities and possible applications in the home and beyond: the combination of the stones allows numerous variations in materials – Bianco Carrara, Crema d’Orcia, Gris du Marais and Pietra d’Avola – and colors, to be applied on floors, walls, wet areas and kitchens.