The entrance to Hall 1 where The Italian Stone Theatre – the Marmomac exhibition dedicated to stone design culture – is traditionally set up is preceded by an open area where the education works of the Young Stone Project are displayed.
A layout ensuring an evident symbolic value: training is an obligatory step for entry into the professional world, interpreted in this case through its stone material aspects.



Marmomac and the research
In this context, the results of research involving several some Italian universities, art academies and professional schools linked by customary exchanges and comparisons on the frontiers of stone design were displayed. Through a relationship by now consolidated thanks to more than two decades of seminars and workshops promoted and supported by Marmomac, knowledge of stone materials and their application in design and architecture finds continuity in this far-reaching link with training institutions, further strengthened by the inclusion in the education programme of several Italian universities of courses involving content related to study, research and experimentation with stone in design disciplines. The annual appointment in Verona with Marmomac is the moment for debate among the members of this natural stone network.


Universities and companies
The round table coordinated by Domenico Potenza was attended by professors of institutes involved in the Young Stone Project, who presented the results of work carried out with students and given effective shape in the prototypes on display in open area in front of the entrance to the hall.
Reports by Giuseppe Fallacara and Vincenzo Minenna for Bari Polytechnic University of Venice, Marco Ferrero for La Sapienza University of Rome, Giulio Girasante for “G. D’Annunzio” University Chieti-Pescara, Marco Zito for IUAV University of Venice, Francesca Piccolino Boniforti and Sotirios Papadopoulos for the Verona Academy of Fine Arts highlighted the effective collaboration between the world of research and the numerous Italian companies in marble and machinery sectors supporting university courses with their experience and the realization of projects by students in the form of prototypes.





YOUNG STONE PROJECT
Experiments with natural stone in universities
Project managers: Giuseppe Fallacara, Marco Ferrero, Vincenzo Minenna, Francesca Piccolino Boniforti, Domenico Potenza and Marco Zito