Building in Stone today

In recent years, structural stone in buildings has experienced a renaissance. This book offers a critical look at what the choice of stone is doing to contemporary architecture, in terms of both practice & form. It takes observations of professionals at work - architects, engineers, quarriers, builders but also clients & their advisors - as it's point of departure. The themes it addresses are stone's perceived novelty as a modern building material; the politics of its provenance; the logic of its supply. the expertise it calls upon; the labour involved in its extraction & assembly; its haptic qualities; & finally, its capacity to last. Assembling voices & commentaries from Spain, Switzerland & England, the book adopts a storytelling format. Drawing on several case studies, it places everyday situations in working with stone at its centre. Illustrated with analogue photographs by the author, Natália Peťková.