Strongly influenced by traditional Romanian architecture, Ion Mincu is credited as the founder of the Romanian national architecture, the Neo-Romanian design style. His prominent works include Scoala Centrala National College, plus renovation of both the Monteoru House and Vernescu House, and Bufetul din Soseaua Kiseleff, all of these located in Bucharest.

Architecture is about designing and building spaces that perform a particular function. This includes commercial or residential buildings, bridges, stadiums, or even parks. Regardless of the type of structure, architecture represents a collaborative space that combines many areas and professions, including structural engineering, interior design, construction, and more.

Architecture is the art of designing and erecting buildings and structures, which should meet the standards of functionality and safety while being aesthetic and inspirational. Many brilliant architects impacted the world of architecture with their creations.

"There is a David and a Goliath in each of us. David wins when he finds the courage to observe Goliath's weak spot. Goliath wins when he intimidates David, thus urging him to throw stones at people." The quote belongs to Romanian and French writer Ionut Caragea and refers to stone, the world’s oldest building material. This is justified, if we consider the impurities and minor imperfections developed in time by stone’s crystalline structure, that ultimately weaken it and make it brittle.

Due to an excellent balance of ethnic and ancient values, Mount Tai has been revered for over 2 000 years. It is believed that Mount Taishan stones have the power to ward off evil spirits and promote harmony, good luck, and wealth.

Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia is now a museum. This religious center was a constant presence in both Christian and Islamic cultures, hence the many legends and rarities associated with it. The "Column of Wishes" or "Weeping Column", is a product of the famous Ephesus culture, and is the undisputed medic of the Hagia. The legend says that Hagia Sophia’s Wishing Column is able to magically cure all ailments, of any patient.

This is a stone that famous for conveying the skill of eloquence and the ability to flatter your audience. And all you need to do is kiss it, on the cold wall of Blarney's Irish castle, its residence since 1446.

Recognized as one of the oldest and most famous fountains in the world, the Trevi Fountain "works" directly for the people, by contributing to the church’s charity organization, namely Caritas, aimed at helping the low-income people of Rome.

"Water doesn't flow, water sculpts", as per the great Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a famous Italian architect, and sculptor from the 17th century.

Stonehedge is perhaps the most famous megalithic structure. But, is it the only one?  First, what are megaliths? What about their origin? How were these mega stone structures have been built a...

From the temples with their structures carved out of stone and found in Al-Khazneh (Petra - Jordan) to the human moai figures of Easter Island, and from the rock-cut Buddhist Ajanta caves (Maharashtra - India) to the Church of Saint George (Bete Giyorgis) in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, the stone was an essential element of culture. Besides, you can’t even imagine all the European history without Mediterranean stone. In Greece, it was also used in groundworks, for a steady base land, besides the standard of building walls of stacked Mediterranean stone without mortar. The Rupea Fortress in Brasov County, Romania, is a fine example of a partially stacked stone decoration.

This is an experience that includes all those amazing preparations that take you through the winding stages of the cleansing pleasure, until the end where you become another person. With its origins hidden at the intersection of Roman and Greek baths, that practiced a beneficial combination of water and steam, the hammam presents itself as a ritualistic journey through chambers with different uses, thus producing sweat for cleansing, eliminating the toxins, and purifying the body, coupled with a full relaxation vibe induced.

When investigating the history of Petoskey Stone, you’ll have to go back 350 million years, when the land was all in one piece and the sea waters were warmer. Back then, life was about shells, c...

Villa Lónyay-Hatvany is an amazing architectural project, originally designed by Miklós Ybl, a famous Hungarian architect. The project sits atop of the most spectacular plot of Buda Castle Hill and has been completely rebuilt.

Welcome to the community of design and architecture lovers! We have prepared a resources PACK that will bring the reality closer and help you create amazing concepts, starting from real finishes.

The Metaverse is a hot topic today, ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned it in October 2021. Ever since then, everything started investigating the concept and trying to imagine our lives captured by it.

Do you like to get together with your loved ones and have quality family time with a garden barbecue grill? Or do you just want to eat healthy? Or, do you simply love to cook and need recipes for your stone garden barbecue? We have prepared an article with ideas of recipes for your garden barbecue.

We have often said that when you start renovating your home, you should work with experts who know how to handle such a project and who deliver the expected results. Otherwise, you might run into very unpleasant situations.

When you decorate your home, you’re consider making it as comfortable and beautiful as possible for now, when you're in shape. You may not realize it, but a day will come, when you'll probably find it hard to climb the indoor stairs more than once a day. Or that you find it hard enough to get into the bath and you know it's time to make some changes. Such changes in bathroom design are not very complex, but if you take them into account from the beginning, you will optimize your time and costs, so here are some tips that will help you in this process.

The vault between rooms is often used to create that open-space that is typical of American homes, or to join two rooms with a similar purpose such as the living and dining room. Or the kitchen and dining room. No matter where you want to build your vault design, we'll show you how to do it.

If you ever considered landscaping your garden, you probably didn’t even realize that you will need a landscape architect. Still, a backyard landscape is essential, especially because it involves working with plants and a constantly changing design.

Pantone, the global reference for colors and provider of professional tools for designers, has launched Pantone SkinToneTM. This is an exciting new collection with 110 skin tones that can be used for inspiration and whenever skin tones need to be combined with a color standard.

Whether it involves residential projects, shopping malls, or even skyscrapers, architects are essential for our existence, because our world would not be the same without their work.

When you work with an architect or interior designer, you’ll have access to a full package of services, that builds the project of your dreams, and this includes realistic renderings. Those are the final stage of the design process, designed for a realistic render of your home.

The year 2022 in interior design is about the pandemic trends’ impact. This includes multi-functional spaces, the use of natural textures, environmental colors and elements that are both functional and aesthetic.

Back in 2020, Classic Blue was announced by Pantene as the new color of the year. Then, for 2021 Pantene introduced two colors: Illuminating and Ultimate Grey. Finally, the 2022 Pantone’s Color of the Year is Very Peri. Even though you probably already knew it, we are going to explain here the symbolism of this color and its relevance for your home decoration project.

With a stunning interior design, shabby chic is about sophistication blended into elegance, plus comfort. This is timeless and romantic, with a charm created by a perfect ambience resulting from mixing old & tumbled colors with textures.

If you are lucky enough to even have a backyard, you might build a garden barbecue, to make sure you spend quality time with your friends. Here is a step-by-step guide for building a brick barbecue. We’ll recommend you all the basic materials for a long-lasting result.

A concept with Chinese origins gains popularity. Feng Shui represents the balance between an individual and their environment. So, Feng Shui sits on the borderline between aesthetic and functional and is recommended to integrate the room with the interior design.

Studies reveal that beautiful offices improve your work efficiency and provide inspiration, while take maximum advantage of that space. The ideal workspace improves work quality and productivity, providing an extra physical and mental comfort.

" ... Cliffs of Darkness, caves of Wonder Echoing the Atlantic's thunder..." declared Sir Walter Scott, after visiting Fingal Cave, the mysterious cavern from Staffa Island, part of the Hebrides archipelago. Queen Victoria would later confirm it, during one of her travels, while perceiving the magical vibration of those lands.

Apart from its fascinating shape and the controversy on its utility, the Great Pyramid of Gizeh is famous because it was the tallest construction in the world for approximately 38 centuries (until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral – England in 1311).

Due to natural stone, as prehistoric medium, we were able to find out the stories of our ancestors, written on stone walls and preserved over the millennia. Besides faith, stone also offers us an identity, by providing meaning to our becoming.

A piece of art created by nature and one of the oldest building materials in the world, natural stone conveys intimacy into your home, underlining even the most tedious public decoration projects. Amazing because of its special durability and extended lifetime, natural stone is most often used in projects as marble, travertine or granite.

Modern architecture would be very different today without AutoCAD, a software that creates another dimension for your 2D & 3D building plans. Developed by the American company Autodesk initially for Windows, but also for Unix and Macintosh, AutoCAD is today more popular for the initial platform.

Due to its lower adoption rate of Building Information Modelling technology in construction projects, Romania needs consistent legislation and skilled professionals to advance in this field. Engineer Florin Dico and architect Serban Tiganas (former president of Romanian Order of Architects) are early adopters and BIM promoters with visible results.

The history of yachts and the origin of this recreational activity is extended throughout the entire world. In a world always on the run, a ranking of super yachts shipyards maintains a compact and exclusivist structure. Here are top three shipyards in this industry:

A life focused on property is balanced only by faith for moving on. In spite of living with it for thousands of years, we might feel the need to highlight our faith as an example for future generations.

Created by the Blue Planet as a symbol of beauty, natural stone was forever the material of choice for all stunning buildings. By being the longest-lasting building material available, stone conveys an everlasting vibe.

This might have been a name for a book, yet only a corner of the world created by nature. A wonder of nature shaped between two mountain peaks that gives you the feeling of finally reaching a place where you can meet God

Lately, we are still looking for an answer to this controversial question: How to clad round surfaces? The debate has two sides: fans of mosaic cladding and fans of SKIN flexible slate. Both products ensure suitable cladding, yet what is actually better?

Since being dubbed "Little Paris", Bucharest remains an element of Romania’s beautiful history, with its impressive buildings and imposing architecture, as a reminder of monarchy, the symbol of modern Romania and a time of many transformations.

Art is one of the most popular forms available to people for expressing their lives, thoughts, emotions or perceptions of life.

Have you ever considered giving up on everything and chasing your dreams? Have you ever imagined that happy endings exist even beyond fairytales and if you believe enough in your dreams, at some point, you might end up with have a castle?

Gastronomy is the art of satisfying the taste buds or the emotion of a cultural experience defined by flavors. This area involves extensive searches, experiences, tastes, flavors and full understanding of taste buds, but also of the human factor.

Whether you are a design enthusiast or you want to decorate, you need as much inspiration as you can find. And considering the things that move on fast-forward in our digital world, where else to find inspiration if not online?

Marble is the natural stone that needs no introduction, with not enough words for describing its beauty. Yet, when you think of marble, the sculptures of ancient history come to mind, the Greek buildings highlighting marble; you can imagine a stylish bathroom or a kitchen, yet you would never imagine that from bathroom, the marble could also be used in fashion.

One can definitely remember the good old days, with magazine cut outs featuring outfits or aspiration rooms, for pasting everything in a notebook, which will serve as source of inspiration / deposit for the things we wanted.

There were so many instances when we demonstrated without a doubt that nature and its creations are generating inspiration for the world of Arts. So, we are not surprised by natural stone used as muse for fashion collections, furniture pieces or avant-garde home decorations.

Is it possible to do something meaningful with the objects stored in a drawer? Definitely! You will be able to create moodboards for your projects. A moodboard, according to its “ad litteram” translation, is a board of many states.

An interior designer is all you need for your home decoration project. Whether you live in a house or an apartment, whether you want to decorate your new home or redecorate your current one, the art of space management that perfectly matches and preferences all these require an expert. What could this expert do for you?

As soon as we got out of swimming pool, we are in a different space, usually a wet space with danger of slipping. That's why this space need some special requirements. Here they are:

As soon as you go through a house gate, the first thing you will notice is the exterior. With a very neat backyard, harmonious colors and in perfect blend with the nature, you begin to make an impression about its residents.

The exterior of your house is as important as the interior. Façade, garden, walkways, all embrace beautifully the story of your home, conveying personality and creativity to everyone passing beyond your front gate.

Natural swimming pool is usually found in gardens and backyards. You can build yourself, to serve as decoration pool, but restricted to swimming. For a natural pool you will not need a construction permit nor the usual technologies and materials required for a standard swimming pool.

What are the main trends in the swimming pool business this year? What about the most recent equipments, materials or new design ideas? You will find all the answers to these questions here:

An indoor pool (possibly in the basement) means added comfort, with facilities unmatched by any other outdoor pool.

Regardless of the size, an apartment is an intimate, personal place, defined usually by comfort. In spite of the fact that everybody wants the most comfortable homes to be able to achieve every dream, there are still building small size apartments.

By the eyes of Earth and Grace of God, stones look at us, with a soft and lazy look, subtle and caring. The best part is that stone allows us to be as week as we are, with our petty joys of life. Stones could humiliate us with their perennial majesty, or they could give faith by their humility,

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a work by Isaac Newton for backing up his earlier theories on motion. Newton’s Laws of Motion and The Law of Universal Gravitation established fresh meanings for determinism.

Some architectural trends for 2018, as predicted by the North American experts, promote a balance between newer and older technologies in the field of artificial intelligence as working tools and the intense involvement of humans in the final decisions of every project.

In a world always on the run for the latest technology and unaffected by emotions, natural stone remains silent. With thousands of years breathing from the quarries or thrown into the environments often claimed exclusively by it, natural stone, a dreadful, yet necessary majesty

God, ubiquitous and Almighty, descend into stone. Revealing himself to the pious monk, or by inspiring the rich, He blesses and protects the things raise or done in His own name. Most of the churches carved in stone belong to Orthodox Church.

In a world of holograms, our brains lie. In a state of chaos, the vague dominates. Clutched by the fuzzy logic, determinism is limping. Stimuli hijack the classic mechanisms of mind, which in turn will produce illusions, the eyes seem to see and the ears seem to hear.

Born in 1950 and descending from Abbasids, a dynasty which invented algebra and promoted Arabic as an international scientific language, Zaha was destined to become a genuine Persian Queen. She was about to amaze the world with her art stories, of surreal

Have you already planned your house decoration project? If your answer is yes, here are some recommendations, to help you fulfill your plans. The final result of your project is significantly influenced by the quality of materials. From the selection of materials to the right type of finish,

The splitface finish creates a surface with small bumps or cracks more or less notable, for a "natural" look, as if the stone had just been extracted from the quarry, out of the wind and the rain. The splitface finish is obtained with high-precision machines, making sure there is no risk of developing further cracks or splits. This type of finish is a perfect fit for many decoration projects, divided in 2 categories.

Akie Nakata is not a computer expert, nor does she destroy fashion patterns. In a high-tech Japan, with the thin line between man and robot getting thinner each year, Akie Nakata reanimates the stone, by gently recalling the spirit of her ancestors.

The hallway is, nest to the facade of the house, the most important element of a home, mirroring in a certain way the personality of the inhabitants of that building. The hallway speaks not only about the host's position in relation to his / her own person but also about the way the guests are perceived by the host. The care and attention invested in hallway decoration are proof of the attitude towards space, pragmatism and the taste for beauty. And all these things have one thing in common: they can be balanced with natural stone.

Life in a crowded city, regulated by the lack of space, generates new ideas in architecture and interior design. Restrictions applied to houses renovation in the 20th or 19th century are forcing architects and homeowners to come up with new possibilities for expansion.

Mediterranean-style constructions are selected usually by those who prefer sun-filled settings, full of plants, flowers, trees and relaxing colors with the shades of the earth (cream, yellow, light brown). At this point it must be underlined that artificial materials cancel any of the defining features mentioned above.

Before facing the problem of choosing natural stone, this seems one of the simplest on Earth. And yet, only people who already decided which natural stone best suit their projects can tell you how difficult this operation is. Of course, for the first time we have to decide on the color, but we cannot limit it to a single product, because we will not decorate that space with only one type of natural stone. So we have to consider that color as an integral part of a system that must have harmonies and suitable contrasts.

Although the undisputed advantages of the natural stone compared to ceramic tiles are acknowledged by many people, I consider it useful to return to the topic, especially since the volume of real estate investments is constantly increasing in Romania. Whether you are preparing to move to a new home or have plans to refurbish your own, you will inevitably reach to the time of choosing the material for wall cladding flooring. We discussed this very hot topic with a professional, experienced installer.

Man has been tattooing for thousands of years. Evidence of tattoos is widespread throughout the world. As signs of adolescent initiation rituals, spiritual or magical connections, trademarks of outlaws, signs of membership to certain groups, indications of social status, and many others, tattoos have today come to be considered a true art.

You have a wide range of plinths available: wood, polyurethane, metal, ceramic tiles, natural stone. Regardless of material and form, they all have a double purpose - aesthetic and practical. "...

Searching and choosing interior finishes for your house is not an easy choice, especially as there are plenty of deals on the market. The main criterion to consider is the quality of the materials. That's why, instead of rushing to inadequate materials, it's better to think twice for taking the best decision.

Being fascinated by some idea, we often neglect that a room isn’t only about flooring, no matter how beautiful it is, and in a bathroom we are noticing more than a natural stone sink no matter how stunning the texture of the material. At PIATRAONLINE we always try to make sure our products match each other, they match the space in which the natural stone will be installed and people understand why this happens like that.

The culture of space – for living or working – is still developing in Romania. The reasons can be explained easily, but we will not deal with that now. It is astonishing, however, that, with the huge set of examples that feature elegant and modern arrangements with different decoration styles, the Romanians, regardless of social class and income, demonstrate dubious tastes. And when we talk about many examples, we're referring to hundreds, perhaps thousands of websites filled with pictures showing what a tastefully decorated space looks like. Think of the saying "In matters of taste, there can be no disputes". This is wrong and we still have a lot to discuss up to that point.

From all the materials used in interior decoration projects, natural stone seems to have the greatest power for generating inspiration. It is almost impossible to establish only one reason, because every products has its own set of values. As a result, sometimes you will find inspiration in the color of a stone, other times the texture or finish, even the interaction with the light or tiles size. Anyway, regardless of your reason for choosing it, the natural stone will be an active element in any space.

Cold season is coming, but you still have time for decorating the exterior of your house. Natural stone cladding is an efficient solution, for delivering a pleasant and well-balanced appearance to your building. Of course, such a balance comes from finding the best possible combination between the exterior elements of your house and the backyard area.

How to choose natural stone for HoReCa projects First of all, you have to choose the type of mood you want for the cafe, restaurant or hotel. A rough stone in panel form (slate, marble, tra...

Planned out with care and attention to detail, the house can completely change with the help of perfectly chosen natural stone. The hallway’s floor can be cladded with travertine or marbl...

A natural sandstone lamp, solid and elegant. Its warm colours and porous surface remind you of the natural environment it comes from: a wild land, far away from the hustle and bustle of civilis...

What types of finishes are suited for natural stone interior steps? The natural stone used for this type of project can be polished, brushed, honed or flamed, depending on the design style ...

It seems that the first large scale construction to ever use this type of natural stone was the pyramid of Zoser, in Egypt. 62 meters high and having a base perimeter of 109 x 125 meters, the p...

Slate | Granite | Quartzite Natural stone should first be chosen considering its destination. For instance, the pristine white Thasos marble is suited for the bathroom but not so much for the c...