Later this month, Clerkenwell Design Week will return to London’s design district with what the event’s organisers say is “its most extensive line-up yet with more venues, showrooms and installations than ever before”.
As always, the showrooms of ceramic tile suppliers like Solus and Domus, as well as manufacturers such as Marazzi, Atlas Concorde and Iris Ceramica, will be key points of interest for the tiling community. At this year’s festival, stone will also play a key role, with the event’s organisers highlighting two installations in particular from Stone Federation GB as well as select British stone suppliers.
Brick from a Stone
Albion Stone and Hutton Stone have commissioned architecture practice Artefact to design a three-metre high stone brick installation, “Brick from a Stone” which will appear at this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week, 21-23 May. The installation will showcase stone bricks which both companies are launching this year. These bricks are said to have “remarkable” environmental credentials, with carbon intensity reductions ofabout 75% when compared to clay-fired bricks–they only have about a quarter of the carbon footprint of traditional bricks.
Both companies have invested in machinery and technology to turn “unloved stone” (blocks and slabs that do not readily conform to sanitised ranges that have become the norm for stone today) into a sustainable building material. These bricks meet the growing appetite for more environmentally friendly buildings and the aesthetic specifications of planners across the UK who often prefer new buildings to be constructed or clad with bricks to suit the local vernacular.
Stone is increasingly recognised as a stronger, more durable, more recyclable, and lower-carbon alternative to the steel and concrete that has become synonymous with the built environment in the 20th and 21st centuries. Stone starts as zero carbon as it doesn’t need to be manufactured, although energy is needed to extract it from the ground, cut it into blocks and carve it. The final product has a low factor of embodied carbon. When local stone is used for local construction projects, the carbon footprint associated with transportation is negligible. As we move towards electric machinery and transportation powered by renewable energy, the embodied carbon of natural stone will continue to reduce.
“Brick from a Stone” will be installed between two iconic red London telephone boxes on Clerkenwell Green from 21-23 May. The installation will consist of a colonnade of six columns constructed from stone bricks in two rows with a roof to provide shelter. The plinths that support the three slender columns to the rear will reflect the production process from stone boulders at the base, to slabs, strips, blocks and finally bricks.
“Our installation Brick from a Stone celebrates the variety of natural stone that lies in abundance beneath our feet, showcasing stone brick, a beautiful ‘new’ product that will help to decarbonise our buildings and provide an alternative to clay-fired brickwork. Our 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,” said Daniel Marmot, director of Artefact.
Stone Tapestry: Beyond the Surface
Also presented on Clerkenwell Green is “Stone Tapestry: Beyond the Surface” by Stone Federation, which features materials not only from Albion Stone and Hutton Stone but also from Britannicus Stone, Dunhouse Quarry and Tradstocks. The federation has once again collaborated with architecture practice Squire and Partners to create an “explorative exhibit designed to demonstrate the sustainability, versatility and beauty of natural stone”. This year’s feature, which was initially showcased at Surface Design Show in February, has been realised by The Stonemasonry Company Ltd and Webb Yates Engineers. Crafted for optimal weight distribution and ease of disassembly, the federation says, the exhibit “ingeniously utilises reclaimed stone pieces that are artfully assembled within a lightweight framework, further fortified with steel, to showcase the diverse colours, textures and unique attributes of British stone”.
www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com
