Building on the success of last year’s first edition, the Marmomacc Meets Design project is being expanded to 15 pairings of architects and stone companies for 2008. The formula will be the same: an architect or designer joins forces with a stone company to develop together a stone prototype reflecting a specific theme. The goal of the project is to stimulate innovative uses and applications of marble and other natural stone materials. In 2007, the theme was the “lightness” of stone. This year’s theme will be stone as texture or “skin.” This choice reflects the increasing focus among architects on selecting materials, including natural stone, on the basis of their surface texture, whether in creating objects or in cladding buildings. Last year some architects developed stone objects and others created modules used to construct entire booths, such as the grey sandstone module created by Kengo Kuma for Il Casone’s booth. Aldo Cibic opted for yet another approach: he used Grassi Pietre’s Vicenza Stone to create a relaxing setting, with an underlying Asian look, in the company’s booth. Both booths were judged to be among the best at Marmomacc 2007 (see below). Grassi Pietre’s booth (left) and Il Casone’s booth (right) The 15 parings for Marmomacc 2008 are: Mario Bellini/Mineranorge, Riccardo Blumer/Scalvini Marmi, Roberto Canovaro/Marmo Arredo, Aldo Cibic/Quarella, Michele De Lucchi/Pibamarmi, Stefano Giovannoni/Grassi Pietre, Massimo Iosa Ghini/Budri, James Irvine/Marsotto, Simone Micheli/Odorizzi Porfidi, Paola Navone/Citco, Pongratz Perbellini Architects /Testigroup, Marco Piva/Marmi Bruno Zanet, Denis Santachiara/Marmi Ghirardi, Luca Scacchetti/Santa Margherita, and Claudio Silvestrin/Il Casone. PARTNERSHIP WITH MATERIAL CONNEXION TO INCLUDE EXHIBIT OF INNOVATIVE NEW MATERIALS AT MARMOMACC Marmomacc has established a partnership with Material Connexion, which describes itself as the largest global resource of new materials, with a library of over 3,500 innovative options in polymer, glass, ceramics, metal, natural materials such as stone, natural material derivatives, carbon-based materials, and cement-based materials. Given the novel nature of many natural and engineered stone materials regularly premiered at Marmomacc by exhibitors, an exhibition of cutting-edge materials at the show, curated by Material Connexion, seemed a natural fit. The Marmomacc-Material Connexion collaboration also extends to this year’s Milan Architectural Triennale. From June 5th through July 13th, Material Connexion’s area at the Triennale will host a “Lightness of Marble” exhibition, featuring the nine 2007 Marmomacc Meets Design projects. Aldo Cibic’s Cibic Workshop will design and create the booth hosting this exhibition. Material Connexion operates material libraries in New York, Milan, Bangkok, and Cologne, while also offering an online database (at www.materialconnexion.com), which includes detailed technical specifications on all materials. Its goal is to connect material users with innovative manufacturers. Manufacturers submit materials to a jury that determines whether they are original enough to be included in Material Connexion’s library. STONE AND INTERIOR DESIGN ON DISPLAY AT THE “GRAND HOTEL SALGARI” One of the highlights of Marmomacc 2008 will undoubtedly be the “Grand Hotel Salgari,” an exhibition presenting a 4,300 square foot living space featuring natural stone and high-end interior design pieces. The “Hotel” will include two suites, a home theater area, a lounge bar, a reception and a fitness area. It is named after Emilio Salgari, an early 20th century Verona author who, despite never having left his native city, wrote popular adventure novels about pirates in the seas of southeast Asia. The interiors of the “Grand Hotel,” while conceived and produced by local companies will, like Salgari’s novels, reflect design influences from exotic faraway lands. This initiative is a collaboration between Marmomacc and Abitare il Tempo, the interior design and furniture fair organized by Veronafiere (Abitare il Tempo runs from September 18th –22nd, 2008; for more information see www.abitareiltempo.com). MARMOMACC PRESENTS: KENGO KUMA AT THE UIA WORLD CONGRESS Marmomacc will sponsor a workshop on stone architecture by Kengo Kuma at the 23rd UIA World Congress (Turin, Italy – June 28th – July 3rd). Entitled “Soft Stone: Stone Origami,” the workshop will examine the many ways in which Kuma has used stone in his work. Given Marmomacc’s commitment to educating architects on designing with natural stone and its support for innovative design applications using stone, Veronafiere will also be present at the Congress with a booth in the Expo area. The booth, which will be built using the grey sandstone module created by Kuma for Il Casone and pictured above, will highlight Marmomacc’s activities targeted at the architectural community. Marmomacc is the leading international trade show for stone materials and technologies, as well as stone-related design. Marmomacc 2007 featured over 1,500 exhibitors from 50 countries (50% of exhibitors were non-Italian). The show attracted over 65,000 trade visitors from 110 countries (foreign visitors made up 43% of the total). For more information or pictures on Marmomacc please contact: The Consultants International Group in Washington, DC (Sebastiano Brancoli, sbrancoli@cig-dc.com, tel.: 202-783-7000).

New hire Scott Hammonds becomes Sales Rep for Nawkaw Pacific Southwest. Watkinsville, Georgia (Nawkaw Corporation) June 12, 2008 – Nawkaw Corporation has added a new product line for precast, tilt-up and GRC concrete. With the addition of a line of elastomer concrete formliners, by Reckli of Germany, a new representative has been hired to represent the Pacific Southwest states in the US. Scott Hammonds has recently been hired as Sales Representative for the states of Arizona, Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, and Southern California. Scott’s background consists of over 12 years of sales and business development within the precast and post tension concrete industries. During those years, he worked with one of the country’s oldest and largest precast producing companies as Sales Manager covering a ten state territory. He has also worked as National Sales Manager for two major communications companies prior to joining his former employer. His production management experience with large casino, condominium and parking deck projects will also help with commercial staining and formliner sales in his position with Nawkaw. He is experienced in working with architects, contractors, and engineers and brings plenty of technical knowledge to his new position. Nawkaw’s reputation is known around the world for helping restore, repair, color and clean centuries old concrete and masonry projects. Nawkaw has been applying its own proprietary environmentally-friendly products for over 20 years and is looking forward to a positive future assisting project managers and concrete producers with the selection and production of RECKLI concrete formliners. RECKLI has been the world leader in concrete formliner production for the past 40 years with locations throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Nawkaw Corporation has been in the US for 21 years and is the leader in masonry and concrete color treatment. Using our own lab tested proprietary products and labor force we offer a 25-year warranty on product and labor. Nawkaw’s products are considered the standard for masonry and concrete color applications.

Changing the color of masonry and forming the face of concrete. Watkinsville, Georgia (Nawkaw Corporation) June 9, 2008 – Nawkaw Corporation has been selected to represent RECKLI Form Liners as the official US distributor for their products. Nawkaw is the exclusive distributor for RECKLI formliners for concrete, plaster and GFRC throughout the United States. Reckli has been the world leader in reusable formliner manufacturing for over 40 years with distributors around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, China, Germany, and France. Nawkaw is proud to offer you a quality formliner with a guarantee of 100 pours and the only formliner line to offer seamless repair and re-sizing. Setting RECKLI formliners apart from other manufacturers is the flexibility of the formliner. So flexible, in fact, intricate and extremely detailed designs are possible. Custom formliners can also be developed to suite your one-of-a-kind project needs putting your company ahead of the competition when it comes to architectural details. RECKLI is the world leader in the design and manufacturing of elastic formliners, moulds and liquid rubbers for many industries specializing in attractive surface modulation and shaping of exposed concrete. RECKLI formliners are used in precasting factories and in cast-in-place concrete with millions of square feet and miles of structured concrete as projects reference. Nawkaw will also offer supporting products like demoulding materials, formliners adhesive and cleanser, filler and thickener or cement-bound products. The type and quality of concrete does not limit the use and application of RECKLI formliners. Whether your product is standard concrete or one using heavy or lightweight aggregates, white cement, colored concrete or concrete with pigments, Reckli products will continue to produce a quality finished product pour after pour. RECKLI formliners can also be used with self-compacting concrete and fiber reinforced concretes such as glass fibers where it has been used successfully for many years.

LAS VEGAS, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- BIMWorld and AEC Daily jointly announced their strategic relationship at Construct 2008 in Las Vegas. AEC Daily is adding the BIMWorld's services to its inventory of marketing services for the building product manufacturers. Through the BIMWorld technology, they will be able to ensure their products are specified from design through construction and beyond. The Building Information Model (BIM) is a set of information generated and maintained throughout the life cycle of a building. BIM covers geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information, quantities and properties of building components. As a result of the relationship, AEC Daily's course library will also be integrated into Autodesk Seek - a groundbreaking web service that allows architects, engineers and designers to search, select and specify building products using Autodesk's advanced search technology. "Building Information Modeling is here now and represents the future of A.E.C. design. An estimated 1,000,000 projects are currently using BIM" said Jeff Rice, President of AEC Daily. "In addition, BIMWorld's connection to Autodesk will allow us to offer our wide selection of outstanding courses to Autocad users - and as always, for free!" AEC Daily currently has over 210 courses that are recognized or approved by 17 different organizations and several new courses are added monthly. Each one meets or exceeds the educational requirement for most construction professionals in North America. About BIMWorld: BIMWorld(TM) is a leading developer of building product manufacturer specific Building Information Modeling (BIM) content for the AEC industry. We are continuously building an extensive library of high quality 3D product models, these models are organized by the Manufacturer's Product data tree, CSI Masterformat 04 and the Uniformat Classification standard. To enhance your design experience, BIMWorld provides versions of our 3D product models to support the leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) applications in the market. About AEC Daily: AEC Daily is the largest provider of FREE online continuing education to construction professionals. Courses are available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and credits are automatically submitted to AIA, CSI and other organizations. Architects, engineers, interior designers and other construction professionals rely on AEC Daily to maintain their accreditation with ease.