Type:           Installation
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Client:         Albion Stone
                      Hutton Stone
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Location:   Islington, London
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Status:       Construction

Brick from a Stone

An installation made from stone bricks that repurposes waste stone to showcase a low carbon alternative to clay fired brickwork.

In the UK, we have an enduring connection to brick. Almost 80% of new homes are constructed in brick with around 2 billion produced per year. However, the process of excavating, milling, shaping, drying and firing the clay to make conventional bricks is very carbon intensive. There is an alternative. Designed for Clerkenwell Design Week 2024, Brick from a Stone is made from stone bricks which have around 25% of the carbon of clay fired bricks. By converting ‘unloved stone’ into small format bricks with known dimensions and the potential to be reused over time, there is significant potential to reduce the carbon in our buildings and expand the use of natural stone.


Installed between two iconic red London telephone boxes in Clerkenwell Green, Brick from a Stone celebrates the variety of natural stone that lies in abundance beneath our feet. Six stone brick columns in Portland limestone and Darney sandstone support a roof for shelter, constructed from timber and translucent stone templating sheet. While the front columns are smooth and finished, the rear columns emerge from a rough-edged boulder, celebrating the production process.

‘An installation... (that) could shake the foundations of the building industry.’ 

The installation picks up on the history of the site, referencing the nearby horse trough with a drinking bowl for local dog walkers, benches and a table to place drinks from the pub next door. The piece hints at the potential to create a new low-carbon vernacular for masonry buildings in the UK that marries the enduring qualities of natural stone with the hand-made qualities of brick

A fragment of the installation at 1:3 was exhibited as part of the Royal Academy Summer Show 2024. The maquette, a collaboration between Artefact and Hutton Stone,  is scultped out of a single boulder of Darney Sanstone in Hutton’s workshops by their stonemasons. The sculpture is a celebration of the age old process of transforming stone from the quarry face into building blocks and of the rich textural variation of the natural material.  It is a work of handcraft that parallels the industrial process.

Team:
Client - Albion Stone, Hutton Stone
Contractor - Albion Stone Restoration
Structural Engineer - Public House London
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Photography
Ivan Jones (brick samples and installation)
Artefact
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Publications
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Dezeen
The Guardian