Xiamen Aofei Building Materials strives to let all our clients feel the charm of nature through our products. And we make sure that we do it in a sustainable way. Therefore, it is crucial for us to cooperate with architectural firms and associations to share our ideas and discuss the best ways to satisfy our customers and do business in a responsible way. This June I visited Ethiopia and Kenya to meet with Architectural companies and Associations to better understand their vision and show our commitment to provide the best service to our clients. I am grateful for the opportunity to visit all the companies and associations in Ethiopia and Kenya this year. I am thankful to everyone from the Architectural Association of Kenya, the construction Contractors Association of Ethiopia, Baseline Architects company, JDAW consult,  Suraya Property Group and White Lotus Company, for meeting with us and hoping to cooperate with you in the future. It was a great honor for me to meet with Jacob W Mwangi — the General Secretary of the Architectural Association of Kenya, Mr. Elias — the former president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Daniel Assefa — the president of JDAW Consult, and others. With Mr. Jacob W Mwangi discussed the best ways to ship our goods to Kenya and specifics of the building materials market in Kenya. Xiamen Aofei Building Materials is opening a tiles shop in Coloho in near future and it was very important for us to hear such valuable advice from Mr. Mwangi.  I learned a lot about demand for natural stone in Kenya and am looking forward to providing the best service to people of Kenya. In JDAW Consult I met the company’s president Mr. Daniel Assefa. Our company provides flooring and facade tiles through WuYi in China for the Zemen Bank project located it Addis Ababa  and it is a great pleasure to be working with such professionals. Another productive meeting was with the president of the Defense Construction Enterprise Company in Ethiopia. Xiamen Aofei is the main supplier of granite and marble for their latest project.  We are grateful for your trust and will do everything to make our cooperation successful. I am also thankful to Mr. Elias — the former president of the Chamber of Commerce. It was a pleasant meeting and it was very kind of Mr. Elias to make time and agree to introduce our company to more local architectural firms in Ethiopia. Mr. Lewis M Gitonga, our client from Baseline Architects LTD. is satisfied with out products, we had a successful cooperation before and I am happy to work with Baseline Architects again. It was great to connect with Abigael Osidiana — the lead interior designer at the LehemInteriors LTD. We successfully worked together in the past, Xiamen Aofei Building Materials supplied kitchen cabinets and countertops to LehemInteriors and I am  glad that we could satisfy our partners with quality of our products. We are working on a new project together now and discussed the details about it...

This July 3-4 I attended ARCHIDEX (The 20th International Architecture, Interior Design & Building Exhibition) in Kuala Lumpur. It is the point of convergence for the architecture, interior design and the building fraternities in Malaysia and the Southeast Asia region. As ARCHIDEX marks its 20th milestone in 2019, it has firmly established itself as the region’s leading architecture business event where industry players convene and keep themselves up-to-date with the latest products, trends, and innovations presented by over 600 companies from all over the world. And I believe, that if we want to give our customers the best service, it's crucial to attend such events. One of the highlights of this year's exhibition was the forum "Climate reality: Designing for a Changing Climate and Agriculture-Incorporating Urban Farming Modern Architecture Design".  "The climate emergency is the biggest challenge facing our planet and our profession," once said RIBA president Ben Derbyshire. "But to have a significant impact we need to do more than make symbolic statements – we need to turn warm words into impactful actions." I completely agree with Mr. Derbyshire and it was really important for  me to learn more about actions we can take in the building materials and architecture field to build a sustainable future. A recent report from think tank Chatham House revealed that eight per cent of the world's carbon emissions comes from concrete's main ingredient, cement. Stirling Prize winning architecture firms including Zaha Hadid Architects, David Chipperfield Architects and Foster + Partners have already declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. Sustainable design focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use — energy, water, and materials — while reducing a building’s impacts on human health and the environment throughout the building’s life cycle. Designing and constructing buildings in an environmentally-friendly manner requires careful thought and planning at the outset of the project. However, the paybacks from building green far outweigh the time and resources spent. Equipped with the knowledge of what makes stone sustainable, you can make the best choices for selecting, installing, and maintaining natural stone.  Choosing natural stone demonstrates that you take responsibility to care for the Earth by actively striving to preserve, restore, or improve the natural environment. And here are the Top Five Reasons Why Natural Stone is a Sustainable Choice for Your Home: 1. Stone is a natural material. Stone is a natural product of the Earth, the original green building material. It does not require other materials or resources to create it. There is an abundant supply with different veining, textures, colors, shapes, and technical characteristics that make it possible for stone to be used in a wide range of applications. Stone’s varying appearance is the result of millions of years of geologic change and mineral composition. Na...