The Laboratorio del Marmo has made designer pieces and furnishing accessories made of Vicenza stone, since 1973. The Laboratorio del Marmo is a firm well established in the contemporary furnishing field. In Italy it can count on a well selected commercial organization with more than 1000 retail outlets and has expanded its business, with 50% of its turnover, in the European and world market. The winning strategy of the Laboratorio del Marmo is based on the combination of artisan production with modern management, involving the whole production system, from research to marketing. The firm, with the guidance of Giandomenico Sandri, who instils his enthusiasm for art and culture into it, is also known as a "laboratory of ideas". Thanks to its avant-garde creations, the firm takes part in important cultural events and, research,in which 10% of turnover is invested, represents still a basic part for its development. Artists, architects and famous designers have been asked to interpret a new way of using stone materials in contemporary house interiors. Their creations represent a rereading of shape and functions that has freed stone from its traditional role of ornamental accessory and turned it into a main feature of contemporary furnishing. The objects and furnishing accessories, made by the Laboratorio del Marmo, stand out for their soft and light shapes, for their elegant and refined features, essential at times, and for the original matching of stone with wood, satin finished metal and Murano glass.