the-origins-of-granite.png

Top-end hotels have mastered the art of luxury, and it shows in every detail. Even the bathroom is often more relaxing than any room in your busy home. Fortunately, recreating the soothing yet decadent atmosphere at home isn’t as hard – or as expensive – as you might think. The key is choosing good quality materials and paying attention to the fine details.

Kitchen worktops of the stone kind can vary widely in the materials used, although their solidity and strength is beyond question. The costs of a completed work surface, however, may be dictated by the materials used. The durability of the material may not necessarily reflect its strength: Some more costly materials may simply look better or have a more stylish appeal. They may carry a greater cachet than engineered stone or manmade alternatives.

This week I have been mostly looking at Roman Aqueducts. The first, the Aqua Appia was built in 312 BC to provide the populace of Rome up to 75,537 cubic meters of water per day. The amazing thing about this structure is that the majority of it’s length was subterranean and dropped only 10m throughout it’s entirety. Aqueducts move water through gravity alone and the Aqua Appia, built from stone, brick and the special volcanic element pozzuolona also afforded itself protection by it’s underground construction. During the Samnite wars, the […]