Arch Revival Pavilion unveiled at Clerkenwell Design Week

An ambitious pavilion, Brick from a Stone: Arch Revival, has been unveiled on Clerkenwell Green by Albion Stone and Hutton Stone for this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week (20 to 22 May). The two British stone suppliers commissioned architecture practice Hawkins\Brown and engineering consultancy Webb Yates to design an installation that would demonstrate the strength, versatility and beauty of stone bricks.

Brick from a Stone: Arch Revival consists of a striking pair of freestanding, vaulted hyperbolic arches that are 4 metres tall. Hawkins\Brown designed the two arches to sit together as one sculptural pavilion, creating a dialogue between the two arches through form and texture.

Each arch is elegantly crafted from a single layer of stone bricks, measuring only 102mm thick, demonstrating the material’s versatility as a load-bearing architectural product. ​ The arches also showcase the variety of sizes and shapes of stone bricks, including T-shaped brick ‘specials’ that both Albion Stone and Hutton Stone can produce thanks to their investment in state-of-the-art machinery. The stone brick specials are one of the winners of the inaugural Clerkenwell Design Week Product Awards.

One arch is built from sandstone bricks in various hues from Hutton Stone’s quarries, predominantly pale buff Darney Heritage sandstone from Northumberland which is reminiscent of the traditional London brick stock. The other arch is made from Heritage Portland Stone bricks from Albion Stone’s mine in Dorset. Each arch includes 702 stone bricks.

All these bricks are made from ‘unloved stone’ – essentially blocks that have already been quarried and removed from the ground but have not been selected for projects due to a mix of geological characteristics. Traditional clay-fired bricks are made from multiple ingredients that need to be screened, mixed, dried and heated to 1,600°C, resulting in a high carbon footprint. Stone starts as zero carbon as it doesn’t need to be manufactured – energy is just needed to extract it from the ground and cut it up. Brick from a Stone: Arch Revival has 66% less embodied carbon than the same structure built with clay-fired bricks, saving 419kg CO2.

“We associate stone with robust and weighty constructions, but by incorporating catenary, load-bearing arches similar to those that Gaudi included in the Sagrada Familia, we designed a structure made up of incredibly thin building blocks. These bricks reveal the strength inherent in the material itself”, explains Roger Hawkins, Founding Partner of Hawkins\Brown. “The installation is a testament to design and engineering and it asks us to reconsider ancient techniques for the 21st century.”

Webb Yates, one of the UK’s top engineering firms specialising in modern stone construction, has advised on the form and construction of the arches which will sit on solid stone plinths with integrated seating. ​

“As well as the considerable carbon saving from using stone in place of fired clay bricks, we wanted to make the point that form (the shape of buildings), is often forgotten as a tool to lower embodied carbon. In this case the subtle change from a semi circular arch to a hyperbolic arch halved the wall thickness” says Steve Webb, Director of Webb Yates.“Generally, bricks are almost exclusively used today as decorative elements, but stone bricks can be structural as well as decorative.”

“Although unnecessary for the final structure, the arches have been lightly reinforced to allow them to be fabricated at the quarry and delivered to site in a single piece, demonstrating the material’s suitability for prefabrication and off-site manufacture,” he adds.

Brick from a Stone: Arch Revival has been installed between two iconic red London telephone boxes on Clerkenwell Green, the same site as last year’s Brick from a Stone installation during Clerkenwell Design Week. Sections from last year’s structure were re-used in this pavilion, creating a bench and tables beside the arches to encourage dwell time for festival goers.

After Clerkenwell Design Week, there are plans to install the arches, bench and tables permanently at the London Cancer Hub in Sutton and will form part of the London Festival of Architecture in June. ​

All photos by Will Pryce

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For further press information or high-resolution images: ​
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​Belinda Fisher, Friends & Co: ​ +44 (0) 7808 721 308, belinda@friendsandco.co.uk

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