{"id":215890,"date":"2024-05-05T15:59:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T13:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aarch.dk\/?p=215890"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:38:11","slug":"stepping-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aarch.dk\/en\/stepping-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"STEPPING STONES V\u00c6RKSTED FOR ARKITEKTUR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ecologies of Stone<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n

STEPPING STONES<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/section>\n

Exhibition with R\u00f8nnow Leth & Gori and V\u00e6rksted for Arkitektur<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/main><\/div><\/div>

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Exhibition opening May 24, 2024, 16.00 \u00a0– \u00a0Strandgade 27b, 1401 K\u00f8benhavn K<\/p>\n

Stepping Stones<\/em><\/a> was an installation by the Ecologies of Stone research group on display at the offices of R\u00f8nnow Leth & Gori and the V\u00e6rksted for Arkitektur<\/a>. It utilized low-processed, waste blocks of stone from Larvik, Norway \u2013 known as larvikite \u2013 to construct an experimental, full-scale structural floor.<\/p>\n

Architects and builders relied for millennia on natural stone to build walls, foundations, vaults and floors. When reinforced concrete arrived in the late 19th century, hesitant architects called it \u2018artificial stone\u2019, and it took decades for concrete to develop its own architectural expression. Today, in Denmark, most load-bearing building elements rely on pre-manufactured concrete elements, an assembly system that recalls the stacking of massive elements used with natural stone.<\/p>\n

Natural stone is a carbon neutral material that can be re-used in perpetuity. Instead of taking advantage of its structural capacity, stone is utilized primarily for cladding and decorative purposes. Narrow aesthetic criteria mean that most dimensional stone quarries generate an enormous amount of unsold material. Up to 70% of the total break may be, in some quarries, categorized as waste and thrown back into the mountain.<\/p>\n

Stepping Stones<\/em> relies on a completely reversable construction system that explores the structural capacity and aesthetics of rock waste and low-energy processing. Fractured edges evoke the original quarry landscape in Larvik. To fit irregular stones together, the floor pattern derives from a digital sorting method, opening the potential to develop less labour-intensive methods of organizing waste material. Seeming to defy gravity, the \u2018flying\u2019 stones, recall the material theatrics of historical, French stereotomy. Pragmatically, it could be imagined in the future as an alternative to pre-manufactured concrete elements.<\/p>\n

The installation was developed in collaboration with WebbYates Engineers<\/a> in London, using waste larvikite blocks provided by Lundhs AS<\/a>. It was fabricated entirely in the workshops of Aarhus School of Architecture.<\/p>\n

Project credits: Jonathan Foote, Robert Trempe, Jr., Jakob Sieder-Semlitsch, Filip Nyborg Novsj\u00f8 (Aarhus School of Architecture), Kristine Prochnau (Carleton University), J\u00f8rn \u00d8stby, Helene Nesheim (Lundhs AS), Steve Webb (WebbYates Engineers).<\/p>\n

A video of the installation can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additional funding from Dreyers Fond<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>

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