Paving design - review

The English word 'pavement' derives from the French verb pavire, meaning to beat or ram. The reasons for not using concrete paving are explained elsewhere and the reasons for not using bitumen paving in gardens do not need to be explained. Let us consider the four natural alternatives for paving:

Stone is the finest paving material. It combines immense durability with all the beauty and mystery of geology. When looking at a fine sandstone pavement, its grain revealed by rain, one is looking at a desert or riverbed from millions of years ago.
See Sandstone Limestone Granite Cobbles

Gravel is the princess of paving materials, and in all probability the oldest paving material. Small stones were beaten into the earth to form pavements in ancient gardens. In modern parks and gardens gravel paving has the enormous advantage of allowing sustainable drainage. It is of course important to select a high quality paving gravel. River-washed round gravel paving is soft and beautiful but not-so-easy to walk on. Sharp gravel in a range of particle sizes ('ungraded gravel') self-binds to form a smooth and stable pavement. Described as stabilisé, it is a widely used paving material in French parks and gardens.

Brick is probably the second oldest paving material. Unfired mud brick was used in Mesopotamia before the practice of heating the clay in a furnace was developed. It was then used for building and paving. Brick paving can have a wonderful quality: soft, warm-coloured, flexible, richly patterned. In gardens, brick paving does not require mortar joints. Pavements made with badly chosen bricks, badly jointed with no patterns can be almost as ugly as concrete slabs.

Tiles, made of terracotta ('fired earth') have been used to pave houses and gardens for at least 4,000 years. Paving tiles are distinguished from bricks by their shape and their glaze. Roman courtyards, used as outdoor rooms, were paved with ceramic tiles and small stone mosaics.