The Hotel Potrero de los Funes sits on the rocky shore of Lake Potrero de los Funes, high in the mountains of the Sierra de San Luis, about 10 miles north-east of the provincial capital of San Luis in central Argentina. The four-star, 97-bedroom hotel and conference centre offers its guests panoramic views across the mountain lake and acts as a focal point for the area’s flourishing leisure industry. In 2005 the hotel hosted the World Chess Championship and, at the end of November 2008, welcomes the final round of the FIA GT Championship; an international motor race that will use the spectacular, recently rebuilt, forty-year-old race circuit that soars and swoops around the lake’s shoreline.

The Sierra de San Luis is also home to SSQ’s La Florida Quarry, the source of Riverstone® architectural stone, a range of premium-quality, natural rock products that have been specifically cut and dressed for architectural use. Riverstone is a phyllite, a close relation of slate, and has been used in the San Luis area for centuries; its natural beauty, durability and slip resistance making it an ideal choice of material for flooring, paving, cladding and stairways.

Hugo Larramendi, the architect responsible for the hotel’s recent multimillion dollar refurbishment, was determined to make use of local, natural materials to connect the hotel with its rugged setting, promote the area’s surroundings and showcase its local industries. So the decision about what to use for flooring in the hotel’s public areas was an easy one to make: over 2,000m2 of Riverstone flooring made the short trip from the quarry to its new home in the hotel’s entrance foyer, reception, restaurant and function rooms.

Email: info@ssq.co.uk