ACAN Natural Materials Group co-ordinator Aurore Baulier calls on architects to embrace stone's natural qualities and reintroduce the material into their toolkits in this Stone Age 2.0 interview.
"Obviously, you can shape concrete into all these fancy forms, but if you're clever with stone, you can do incredible stuff," Baulier told Dezeen.
"Stone can be used for foundations, but also as a superstructure," she continued. "A beam can actually be stone instead of steel, minimising its carbon footprint."
"Swapping traditional materials ? or materials that are traditional now ? for stone can be done."
Top: Aurore Baulier is calling on architects to use structural stone. Above: she believes stone should be embraced for its natural qualities. Photo of 15 Clerkenwell Close by Timothy Soar Baulier, who is the director of London studio Atelier Baulier, spoke to Dezeen as part of our Stone Age 2.0 series, which is exploring the material's potential to be a modern construction material.
She advocates for the use of structural stone as part Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), where she coordinates the Natural Materials Group.
The group is calling for an industry-wide shift to natural building materials, such as stone, to help minimise the industry's carbon footprint and wider environmental impact.
According to Baulier, the use of stone in construction has similar benefits to timber, another biomaterial that is being revived as a structural...