Stone is the solution to many of our architectural problems

The story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ is hammered into us all from an early age. But its moral lessons obscure its more literal advice about building: skimping on materials is a false economy. It’s a lesson learned too late for schools built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). Who would’ve predicted that concrete made cheaper by cutting it with air, puffed up like a Malteser, would end up crumbling like one too? It’ll soon prove that the initial cost savings of Raac will be wiped out multiple times over once the risk to life and expensive, disruptive repairs have been taken into account. Getting materials wrong almost cost the little pigs their bacon. Is it any surprise that we are returning to building in solid, dependable masonry?

While we build extensively in brick, tarting up mediocre developments in a half-hearted response to local context, stone masonry doesn’t require multiple mines for its ingredients, or energy and emissions-intensive firing; stone is simply quarried and cut to size, at a fraction of the environmental impact of brick, let alone that of concrete.