This two-part webinar is a unique opportunity to learn from contemporary practices working with stone.
Full event video
We will be joined by French practices Perraudin Architecture, Carl Fredrik Svenstedt Architects, and Studiolada Architects alongside Valérie Bergeron at Polycor, Steve Webb of Webb Yates Engineers, Pierre Bidaud from The Stonemasonry Company and Amin Taha of Groupwork Architects, curators of the New Stone Age exhibition at the Building Centre from February to August 2020. We are looking forward to this being our first English and French bilingual event. We didn't want language to stop us learning from people and projects around the world, so this event will be translated for both anglophone and francophone communities.
Part One - Contemporary stone architecture
5.30 - 6.45pm
The speakers will share their extensive experiences of working with stone in a roundtable discussion. The event will focus on the practical, economic and environmental attributes of stone and why this material has a place in architecture today.
Speakers include:
- Christophe Aubertin, Co-founder of Studiolada
- Valérie Bergeron, Director of Business Development Europe at Polycor
- Pierre Bidaud, Creative Director at The Stonemasonry Company Ltd.
- Carl Fredrik Svenstedt, Founder of Carl Fredrik Svenstedt Architects
- Steve Webb, Co-founder of Webb Yates Engineers
Chair: Vanessa Norwood, Creative Director at the Building Centre
Part Two - Building in stone: Gilles Perraudin in conversation with Amin Taha of Groupwork Architects
7-8pm
Gilles Perraudin, founder of French practice ‘Atelier d'Architecture Perraudin’, is a leading figure in sustainable and ecological architecture.
As a student, Perraudin’s interest lay in vernacular architecture and the interrelations of humans, climate, and habitat. Perraudin set-up his own practice in 1980 and in the same year won first prize in the European passive solar energy competition and international recognition for their bioclimatic house project. Since then the practice has continued to bring attention to the embodied carbon of projects, the CO2 emissions over the entire production process of a building, and the materials used.
However, it was in 1998 and their construction of the Wine Cellar of Vauvert that the practice rediscovered structural stone. The practice’s subsequent projects increasingly started to use stone as a primary construction material, building Perraudin’s understanding of the environmental virtues of this natural and ever-present material. From his extensive experience, Perraudin wrote ‘Constructing in Massive Stone Today’ a seminal book outlining the techniques and guidelines for structural stone construction.
The practice has also become renowned for its work on a number of social housing projects across France and Switzerland and their application of stone to create cost-effective, environmentally-conscious, and lasting contemporary housing.
We would like to thank Polycor for supporting the event.
This event is part of The New Stone Age exhibition and associated public programme curated by Amin Taha and Alex Cotterill of Groupwork Architects, Pierre Bidaud of The Stonemasonry Company Ltd and Steve Webb of Webb Yates Engineers, with the Building Centre. Supported by the Built Environment Trust.
We would like to thank our headline sponsors Polycor and The Stonemasonry Company Ltd.
