The key player in the street furniture of many historical cities, the sanpietrino or sampietrino (cobblestone) is the core aspect of several projects of urban design, also of a modern or contemporary character.
Whatever it’s called (both sanpietrino and sampietrino are correct in Italian), its shape remains unchanged over time: the small cube made of natural stone, with a thickness of 65mm, identical in appearance to the roman sanpietrino cobblestone from which it all began.
The sanpietrino has always been chosen because of its material coming from rocks: originally made of leucite, then porphyry, basalt and marble stone.
This is because the sanpietrino cobblestone for outdoor is mainly used for its resistance to weathering, and such feature makes it suitable to being continuously exposed to bad weather.
Does the natural stone still remain the most reliable choice for this kind of urban paving? Well, that’s not true anymore.
The research and the new technologies on construction materials have highlighted how other surfaces are more efficient and suitable for this kind of use, first of all the porcelain stoneware.
Sanpietrini cobblestone pavings: new eco-friendly solutions made of ceramic
In recent years the use of porcelain stoneware for outdoor has taken hold, not only within the residential areas but also and especially within the street furniture, and is gradually replacing the natural stone.
The alternatives to natural stones for urban paving are increasingly wide-spreading for reasons that include sustainability, better technical and durability performance, high resistance to wear and heavy loads.
Furthermore, the urban planning and related architecture are encompassing an approach more focused on the green building practice, also due to the Green Public Procurement that fosters sustainable development projects.
From this point of view, these sustainable new ceramic solutions meet perfectly these purposes, ensuring an excellent aesthetic result and performance.
Green Urban Design: the cutting-edge sustainable porcelain stoneware sanpietrino
The latest generation of porcelain stoneware products better express the potentialities of such material, and they fit perfectly the green urban design.
Among the sizes available, Grestone® Urban Pavings introduces the eco-friendly sanpietrino intended for street furniture and outdoor paving. This one-of-a-kind new porcelain stoneware stone is manufactured by recovering up to 30% of waste materials coming from other production processes.
The Grestone® Urban Pavings sanpietrino combines compactness and great inner strength with texture and appearance, completely similar to the ancestor made of rock, but technically better-performing because more:
- lightweight
- resistant
- affordable
- environmentally sustainable
With thicknesses of 65 mm (6.5 cm) and 50 mm (5 cm), the Grestone® eco-friendly sanpietrino cobblestone is available in sizes 10x10, 10x20, 20x20.
The Grestone® sanpietrino for outdoor means excellent performance in terms of resistance to stresses and traffic typical of city environments and offers absolute aesthetic and stylistic freedom thanks to a huge selection of special sizes and connecting elements to ensure the utmost completeness of projects.
- avenues and streets subject to heavy traffic
- city squares/urban plazas
- car parking and drivable areas subject to prolonged stresses
- cycle and pedestrian crossings
- walkways and sidewalks
