Son Marroix. Deia

INTERNATIONAL STONEWORK SYMPOSIUM 2007
Imagine a hundred or so happy people standing and sitting on these steps and on planks laid between the steps. That's what the group photograph taken on the last day of the Symposium looked like. Unfortunately it disappeared with my camera in the airport in Barcelona.

This, the Stone Foundation's seventh annual gathering and the first to take place outside the USA, was well attended and much appreciated. The venue, one of the former residences of Arch-Duke Louis Ferdinand of Austria and now a museum and concert hall was a most elegant setting for the three days of presentations that constituted the meeting hall aspects of the symposium. The two intervening days were taken up touring the island's 4,000 year tradition of stonework.

The Symposium was centered in the picturesque village of Deia in the moutainous northwestern corner of the island and its bars, cafes and restaurants provided a convivial environment for informal discourse. The articulate and plentiful stonework of Deia, its environs and the neighboring villages and towns, was a source of inspiration to all who attended.

The presentations are listed below in alphabetical order of the presenters' last names. A video was made of each individual presentation and CD copies of these are available for $25 each including postage.

STONEWORK SYMPOSIUM TOPICS, PRESENTERS, DEMONSTRATORS

STONE IN THE VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF SPAIN
Javier Cenicacelaya, Bilbao, Spain. Architect, Professor at University of Bilbao.

SITE-GENERATED ART, THE USE OF STONE IN THE CREATION OF COMMUNITY SPACES
Andy Dufford, Denver, Colorado. Public art design and installation practitioner.

FINE POINTS OF STONECRAFT
George Gonzalez, Bolinas, California.  Stonemason, contractor and Stone Foundation founder/member.

ARQUITECTURA POPULAR ESPANOLA
Tomas Lipps, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Stonemason, Stone Foundation founder/ director and editor of STONEXUS Magazine and
Miguel Ramis, Mallorca, Spain, Stone carver and Director of Artifex Balear.
Miguel and Tomas showed and discussed photographs from the highly regarded five volume edition by Carlos Flores, "Arquitectura Popular Espanola," a magnificent now-out-of-print work, currently priced at about $1000.

STEREOTOMY or STONECUTTING, A MAIN PART OF ARCHITECTURE
Dr. Jose Calvo Lopoez, Cartagena, Spain. Professor, Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnologia de la Edificacion, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena.

LIME FOR THE BUILDING OWNER, PRACTITIONER (STONEMASONS, BRICKLAYERS AND PLASTERERS) AND SPECIFER (ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS)
Patrick McAfee, Dublin, Ireland.  Stonemason, Author of Stone Buildings and Irish Stone Walls.  Pat’s presentation will launch his new book on lime which will be published by Ireland’s Building Limes Forum.

STONE AND STONEWORK IN AUSTRALIA
Raelene Marshall, Australia. Photo-journalist, Director of CULTURE IN ACTION, Secretary of the Dry Stone Wall Association of Australia, and curator of “A STONE UPON A STONE” touring exhibition.

THE STONEWORK AND STONEWORKERS OF INDIA
Devendra Ramji, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Architect, Stonemason 

THE GEOMETRY OF THE STONEMASON
Miguel Ramis, Mallorca, Spain, Stonemason, Stone carver and Director of Artifex Balear 

CREATIVITY WITH DRY STONE CONSTRUCTION
John Shaw-Rimmington, founder/director of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada

THE CONTINUING EVOLUTION OF THE MEDIEVAL STONEMASON'S GUILD, LES COMPAGNONS DU DEVOIR, and CONTEMPORARY TRAINING PRACTICES IN FRANCE.   Richard Simonet, France. Member of Les Compagnons de Devoir (the contemporary generation of the medieval guilds)  and instructor of stonemasonry at the Institute Superieur de Recherche et de Formation aux Metiers de La Pierre (Institute of Stone) in Rodez, France.