Research

Slate Roof tiles have been used since centuries to cover historical monuments, churches, and castles in the Netherlands. It has great features such as water resistance and durability and can last several hundred years, often with little or no maintenance. But due to today, major quarries of Slate stone in Europe have been closed. The production process is very unsustainable. The intention of this research is to investigate a sustainable alternative material for the slate tiles.

The project has been initiated as part of Slot LAB, for which Studio Mixtura is collaborating with architectural studios on a sustainable design proposal for the Slot Schaesberg in province Limburg (NL). The tower of the Slot Schaesberg in Landgraaf is being rebuilt with old crafts and materials. Slot LAB investigates how we share the same building components with modern building technologies and how materials can be processed in a circular manner and used locally.

The idea of the research is to investigate the potential replacement of Slate stone and create a modular facade tile system. Studio Mixtura is testing advanced techniques to create a sustainable alternative based on waste streams of slate stones and other mineral residues sourced locally in the Netherlands. Waste streams of Slate appear in the quarry after the stones have been split and cut. The production requires the presence of water in order to settle the powder dust in the air. Combination of dust and water result in sludge waste which is collecting in the filters.  For the project Geo Slate, Studio Mixtura will produce material samples based on geopolymer technology and slate waste streams. Beside material experiments, Studio Mixtura is working on developing a modular facade tile system which will allow minimizing material loss during assembling of complex roof and facade structures