The New Stone Age, the research initiative exploring the potential of structural stone in contemporary construction, has taken its work to the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), where a collaborative installation examines how natural stone could reduce reliance on concrete and steel.

As we’ve previously reported, the collective aims to restore knowledge of load-bearing stone to architectural practice, making the case for a material more commonly specified as cladding or a decorative finish. Its latest presentation, The New Stone Age x The Netherlands, builds on research undertaken by Groupwork and Studio Anna Zan to collect and translate information about structural stone for Dutch architects. Supported by a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL, the research led to an invitation from the Biennale to develop the installation.

The project is part of IABR 2026, titled Systems of Support, which runs from 18 September to 29 November at Piekfabriek, on Rotterdam’s former Hunter Douglas site. The 12th edition of the Biennale considers how architecture and design can respond to pressures on the systems supporting everyday life, from water, energy and raw materials to housing and infrastructure. The New Stone Age contributes to that discussion by examining the resources and construction methods underpinning the built environment.

Bringing together LMNL office for architecture and landscape, Studio Anna Zan, Groupwork, Bamberger Natursteinwerk, Webb Yates Engineers, WYSWYG / ARCHITECTURE, The Stonemasonry Company and StudioSpass, the installation presents stone as a structural material with potential for contemporary, lower-carbon construction.

At its centre are a series of components and full-scale mock-ups demonstrating how engineering can extend stone’s capabilities. Augmented Structural Stone, developed by Bamberger Natursteinwerk, Groupwork and Webb Yates, uses inserted tendons to prestress stone elements, increasing their capacity to resist bending and allowing more slender columns, beams, façades and floor components. A timber-stone composite floorplate takes a complementary approach, combining stone in compression with timber in tension. Mechanically connected and designed for dry assembly, the system is intended to be load-bearing, demountable and reusable.

Full-scale wall assemblies developed by LMNL office and Studio Anna Zan explore combinations of stone with wood-fibre insulation, hemp-lime and sheep’s wool. The research considers how different stone types, dimensions and wall compositions might support low-carbon, vapour-permeable construction.

The material displays extend beyond engineered components too, with twenty stones sourced within 600km of Rotterdam illustrating the potential of regional supply to reduce transport impacts. The 20x20cm cubes include Dutch Kunrader limestone, Belgian blue limestone, German basalt lava, Portland limestone from the UK and Norwegian Larvikite. Stone bricks from a range of suppliers also demonstrate how smaller units can be cut from blocks and offcuts unsuitable for larger slabs. Indeed, the collective states that stone bricks can have a carbon footprint 75-98% lower than conventional fired-clay bricks.

Historical context is also woven in via a sandstone tympanum dating to 1717, originally part of Rotterdam’s former Plague House. On loan from Museum Rotterdam, the carved piece depicts the coats of arms of seven city councillors, flanked by reclining river gods and surrounded by foliage and other motifs. Its presence connects the contemporary structural research with the city’s longstanding use of stone. Following the exhibition, the tympanum is intended to be incorporated into the Piekfabriek development.

Research publications and Dariya Cheremisina & Giulliana Giorgi’s film Unlocking UK Stone help to trace the UK stone supply chain, while Hutton Stone building blocks that visitors can stack and rearrange complete the installation. Together, the exhibits make the case for reconsidering stone not simply as a finish, but as a reusable structural resource whose performance depends on engineering, sourcing and the skills needed to work it.

The RIBA Stirling Prize always draws plenty of attention around this time of year, and the winning project is an architectural feat worthy of such focus. Unified by brown brickwork Mary Duggan Architects’ Lion Green Road is a 157-home development in Coulsdon, south London, and was recognised for its response to a difficult sloping site, where that brickwork, carefully arranged apartment buildings and a generous public landscape combine to offer an alternative to conventional high-density housing.

Image: RIBA

Designed by Mary Duggan Architects with RUFF Architects responsible for delivery, the scheme occupies a site in the London Borough of Croydon, between suburban streets to the north and low-rise housing on higher ground to the south. An eight-metre level change, access requirements and a neighbouring scheduled monument associated with the historic Surrey Iron Railway all placed constraints on the design. Rather than treating the terrain as an obstacle to be levelled, the architects used it to determine the arrangement of the buildings and the spaces between them.

Five pavilion buildings accommodate the homes, with an equal mix of affordable and private dwellings. Their distribution retains open ground across the site, connecting the development to the parkland beyond and creating a network of publicly accessible paths. The approach also enabled the team to exceed the original brief for the number of homes, without filling the site with a single continuous block.

Image: RIBA

As mentioned, brick provides the common material language across the five buildings. Three shades of brown distinguish overlapping sections of the façades, giving the folded elevations variation while maintaining a sense of cohesion. A projecting brick detail runs across the buildings, producing a textured, almost pixelated surface that changes with the light. Its horizontal emphasis also helps establish the scale of the storeys, while the shifts in colour and plane soften the visual mass of the pavilions against the surrounding greenery.

Image: Lorenzo Zandri

But the brickwork is not simply a finish applied to an otherwise standard arrangement. The faceted geometry of the buildings gives the elevations different orientations, allowing the material to register differently across the site. The resulting architecture has a strong identity without relying on a separate treatment for each unit - the building blocks themselves literally form the surface decoration.

Inside, the apartment plans follow a pinwheel arrangement around a central core, providing dual-aspect homes with good daylight and outward views. Balconies are positioned to limit direct overlooking, allowing the pavilions to sit closer together while retaining privacy. Changes in building height respond to the site's contours and preserve important views towards the scheduled monument.

Image: Lorenzo Zandri

Developed with Planit, the landscaping and planting strategy retains mature trees and introduces woodland, gardens, allotments and play spaces. Paths thread between the buildings, while changes in level establish a hierarchy of shared and more private external areas. The open ground acts as a connective space for residents and the wider neighbourhood, rather than being left over between blocks.

Image: Lorenzo Zandri

The project team also considered the environmental implications of construction, using modularity, reduced structural weight, optimised foundations and construction sequencing to improve efficiency and reduce upfront embodied carbon.

Lion Green Road demonstrates how a familiar material can help establish continuity across a complex housing scheme. Brick gives the five pavilions a shared character, while shifts in colour, texture and geometry respond to their setting. Through its selection, the Stirling Prize 2026 recognises a project in which the relationship between building, ground and landscape is as important as the number of homes delivered.

Surface specification rarely involves a single material in isolation. A kitchen may bring together worktops, cabinetry and splashbacks; a hotel combines reception counters, wall finishes, furniture and washroom fittings. Each has its own performance requirements, but the materials must also work together visually. Broadview Materials has built its proposition around this relationship, bringing several established surface brands into one coordinated portfolio for architects, designers, manufacturers and fabricators.

The group brings together Arpa®, FENIX®, Formica®, Getacore® and Homapal®, each with a distinct material specialism and heritage. With a few household names in the mix, the intention is not to erase those differences under a single identity, but to make the collective offer more useful at the point of specification. Through a combined sales and distribution platform, customers can access complementary materials and explore how they might be used together across residential and commercial interiors.

Broadview Materials describes this added value as The Big+: the design and practical opportunities created by bringing different technologies, finishes and expertise together. Rather than approaching each surface as a separate decision, designers can consider colour, texture, fabrication and performance across a wider scheme, with the potential to create a more coherent material palette.

The breadth of the portfolio begins with decorative laminates, and one particularly recognisable name. Formica®, whose history spans more than a century, offers high-pressure laminates for applications including furniture, doors, wall panelling, worktops and cubicles. Arpa® brings an Italian design sensibility to high-pressure laminates, with varied decors and surface textures. Both provide scope for specifying durable decorative finishes, but their individual collections allow designers to establish different visual characters.

FENIX® occupies a more specialised position within the interior surfaces range. Developed by Arpa Industriale and launched in 2013, its materials are distinguished by their low light reflectivity and ultra-matt appearance, alongside anti-fingerprint properties. These characteristics make FENIX particularly relevant where a restrained, contemporary surface is required, from kitchen cabinetry to furniture and commercial interiors.

The relationship between these brands is one of the portfolio's more useful aspects. An ultra-matt FENIX®  material can be considered alongside the broader decorative choices offered by Formica and Arpa, allowing a scheme to move between contrasting textures and visual effects without losing its overall coherence.

For applications requiring greater shaping freedom, Getacore® provides an acrylic-bonded solid surface. Its formability supports designs that demand shaped components and carefully resolved details, with applications across kitchens, bathrooms, hospitality and retail. Where laminate offers a hard-wearing decorative finish, solid surface provides a different set of fabrication possibilities, extending the range of forms available to designers.

Homapal® introduces another dimension through laminates incorporating genuine metal surfaces, including aluminium, copper, brass and stainless steel. These finishes can bring reflectivity, texture and depth to wall panels, furniture and bespoke installations. Used alongside the quieter matt finishes of FENIX or the decorative range of Arpa and Formica, metal laminates offer a way to introduce contrast without requiring a completely different material system.

Together, the brands address a range of settings, from residential kitchens and bathrooms to retail, education, healthcare, hospitality, leisure and commercial workplaces. The requirements vary considerably between these environments, making the ability to draw on different surface types particularly relevant. A reception desk, for example, may call for a distinctive decorative finish, while adjacent furniture or wall panels could benefit from a contrasting texture or metallic detail.

Broadview Materials' proposition is therefore as much about coordination as product choice. The group gives specifiers access to several established areas of surface expertise through one wider offer, while retaining the individual identities that make each brand recognisable.

Its purpose, expressed through the phrase ‘materialize potential’, is to help customers turn material choices into distinctive and commercially practical design solutions. For architects and interior designers working across multiple applications, the advantage lies in having more than one route to the desired result: a portfolio in which surfaces can complement one another in appearance, respond to different functional demands and contribute to a consistent design language.

The relationship between materials, ecology and the built environment is under scrutiny at Regenerative Design 2026, a series of exhibitions at London’s Building Centre exploring how architectural practice can move beyond minimising environmental harm towards making a positive contribution to people and the natural world.

Running until 30 October, the programme includes Regenerative Design 2026: Case Studies, bringing together more than 100 practices participating in the Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI). The projects demonstrate how regenerative principles are being applied across architecture, engineering and landscape design, with material selection, resource reuse and the restoration of natural systems central to many of the approaches on show.

Materiality comes to the fore across a number of the projects on display, with dRMM turning their attention to English timber. Building from England’s woodlands challenges the disparity between the number of hardwood species found within the UK’s forests and the number of buildings that are made from it. They attribute this underuse to ever-decreasing knowledge and skills required to work with timber such as oak, beech and sweet chestnut. Funded by Forestry England, the team proposes innovative hybrid timber that combines softwoods and hardwoods.

Atelier One’s Green School Gymnasium in Bali explores another naturally growing material. Designed by Elora Hardy of IBUKU, it explores the structural potential of bamboo, a renewable material that offers an alternative to more carbon-intensive construction systems. Known for its fast growth and inherent strength, its use as a structural element within the project places its natural properties and construction possibilities at the centre of the architecture.

Arbor Architects put the circular front and centre with The Tin Barn EnerPHit, transforming two derelict barns into a sustainable, resilient home. A new timber frame created from locally sourced forests allowed them to repair rather than demolish the existing buildings, while salvaged stone and metal roofing were integrated into the design to save on waste. The resulting abode has achieved the Passivhaus EnerPHit standard, proving that it can be done with retrofit as well as new build.

Material sourcing is equally important to BakerBrown Studio’s Bradbury Den, a year-round classroom at Chailey Heritage Foundation. Built using locally sourced straw, clay from the site and English oak, the project connects the building to its immediate surroundings. Students, staff and volunteers also participated in its construction, linking the use of natural materials with community involvement and practical skills.

Together, the projects suggest that regenerative material specification requires a broader understanding of value. Embodied carbon remains an important consideration, but the circumstances of extraction, the potential for reuse, the skills involved in construction and the consequences for local ecosystems also matter. Natural materials are not automatically regenerative, just as recycled content alone cannot establish a product’s overall environmental value. The wider question is how a material contributes to a system that can sustain itself over time.

Alongside the case studies, Reinventing Practice presents portraits by architectural photographer Timothy Soar, accompanied by interviews examining how organisations are changing their working methods. A third exhibition, Wildheart: The Bears, uses live footage from Wildheart Animal Sanctuary on the Isle of Wight to explore the relationship between architecture, habitat and animal welfare.

Centred on the RAI, the programme brings practical examples together with a wider examination of the changes needed across the construction industry. For practices interested in regenerative design, the projects offer a reminder that material choices are not simply a question of finish or specification. They can influence how buildings are constructed, how resources circulate and how architecture relates to the living world around it.

All images © Timothy Soar

Brickwork is usually governed by a simple geometry: rectangular units laid in courses, with curves achieved through careful setting out, specialist skills and, often, considerable cutting. McKie’s Rotational Bricks takes a different approach, rethinking the shape of the brick itself to make walls that turn, weave and follow more complex footprints without losing their vertical alignment.

Developed by designer-builder Mark McKie, the patented system allows each brick to be rotated at an angle to the one beside it. The geometry enables a wall to change direction while maintaining a plumb face, opening up possibilities for curved enclosures, garden walls and more intricate architectural forms without the labour associated with conventional curved brickwork.

The bricks’ interlocking geometry, which makes each row rather like a bicycle chain, also allows secondary walls to connect to a principal wall without disrupting the bond. Walls can even pass through one another, creating continuous, looping forms that would be difficult to achieve with standard masonry units.

What’s more, the gaps between the bricks have been made part of the design rather than something to conceal. Left exposed, they create an open, almost woven surface, allowing light and air to flow, while also providing opportunities for planting. This makes the system particularly suited to landscape projects, where the wall can operate as both boundary and permeable screen. Where a weatherproof envelope is required, a complementary bracket system allows walls to be clad, insulated and boarded using conventional methods.

McKie developed the concept during lockdown, initially while designing a construction toy for his daughters, before recognising its potential for building and landscaping. Early prototypes included bricks made from recycled plastic bottle lids, demonstrating how the geometry could be explored beyond conventional masonry materials. The company now offers cement-bound bricks made from a reduced-carbon mix, with further material development intended to broaden the range. The system has been demonstrated at events including Clerkenwell Design Week and Shoreditch Design Triangle, where curved structures have woven their way throughout the design showcases, with an exciting building made entirely from the bricks soon to be completed.

With more to follow, Rotational Bricks are less about introducing a new surface finish than reconsidering what a brick wall can do. Changing the shape and relationship between individual units has created an alternative to the straight line as the default starting point for masonry. Here’s to more curved walls!

Low Carbon Industrial has added Aubrick, a compressed earth brick made with excavated soil and a low-emission lime binder, to its surface materials portfolio. Manufactured by its partner earth4earth, the brick is designed to absorb carbon dioxide during its lifetime, offering an alternative to conventional clay bricks that rely on kiln firing.

Rather than quarrying clay and firing it at high temperatures, Aubrick uses earth excavated from construction sites that might otherwise go to landfill. The material is compressed into shape and bound with a proprietary lime made without heat, with mineral pigments providing its colour. Rather tantalisingly, Low Carbon Industrial believes each brick can absorb up to 178g of CO₂ from the air as the lime binder carbonates.

The bricks are available in London Yellow and Welsh Grey, with smooth and rustic finishes offered for brick slips. Natural variation in the recycled earth means colour can differ between batches and even across individual pallets, bringing an inherent material variation to the finished surface.

Along with a published Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), Aubrick is UKCA and CE marked, and is designed to be installed using conventional bricklaying methods. IN terms of performance, its declared compressive strength is 10N/mm², with a reported mean strength of 39.1N/mm². Classified as non-combustible, with an A1 fire rating, it is suitable for interior and exterior walls, floors and cladding. And what’s more, at the end of its service life, the material can be crushed for use in new bricks or returned to the ground as soil.

The bricks have already been put into practice on an array of projects, including United Water, a water treatment works in Tongxiang, China, where 200,000 Aubrick bricks have been installed across the site. Bricks are utilised in wall panels within the concrete frames of the treatment buildings themselves, as well as in the paving between the buildings, along with a perforated boundary wall along the road that incorporates solid piers.

As such, the project demonstrates how, rather than being restricted to a single decorative or construction element, one material can provide continuity across different architectural applications. And according to the team, the installation accounts for up to 35.6 tonnes of CO₂ absorbed by the bricks, using the stated maximum absorption of 178g per brick. The project also puts the material in a demanding environment: Tongxiang experiences hot, humid summers and a prolonged rainy season, exposing the installation to repeated heat and moisture.

Aubrick extends a portfolio that already challenges conventional assumptions about surface materials. As we’ve covered previously, Low Carbon Industrial brings together products developed from waste streams and lower-impact material processes, including Stelapop, a material made from reclaimed denim that was launched in the summer. The common thread is an effort to turn discarded resources into materials suitable for practical specification, with technical performance and end-of-life considerations part of the proposition.

Through its partnership with earth4earth, Aubrick applies that approach to one of construction's most familiar materials. Rather than asking architects and contractors to adopt an unfamiliar building system, it offers an alternative brick format intended to meet established standards and installation practices, while putting excavated earth and carbon-absorbing lime to work.

With a global reduction in natural habitats caused by increased construction and human-led developments, there is a growing call to design and build in ways that allow people to flourish in conjunction with the biodiversity in which they inhabit.

At Virginia Water in Surrey, McLean Quinlan has designed a single-storey house that takes its cues from the landscape and complex ecosystems that surround it. Set within a wildflower meadow and bordered by protected woodland, the 270sqm home uses brick, timber and reconstituted stone to establish a relationship with its setting, while a courtyard plan brings daylight, ventilation and views into the centre of everyday life.

The project was commissioned by a client relocating from London who wanted a high-performance home suited to both quiet living and entertaining family and friends. With an interest in hiking and birdwatching, the client was looking for a house that would make the surrounding landscape part of daily life rather than a view to be enjoyed from a distance.

Protected trees and a floodplain designation brought constraints to the site, but rather than seeing them as a hindrance, the practice used them to help inform the building's position and form. The ecological sensitivity of the surroundings required close coordination with arboricultural and environmental consultants, which has resulted in a low-lying house raised above ground level, its elevated profile giving it a sense of lightness over the meadow. The challenges of changes in level have been met with ramps and steps that make the approach part of the architectural experience.

As senior architect Emma Reeves explains: “The surrounding landscape, including the protected woodland and floodplain zone, is central to the narrative of this home. We designed Virginia Water to sit gently within its context, keeping a low-lying profile. The central courtyard is key to the design, bringing in natural light and enabling cross-ventilation throughout the home.”

The courtyard is the organising element, with a glazed entrance lobby that opens towards it before leading into the main living space, where kitchen, dining and sitting areas form a generous open-plan room. Four bedrooms, an office and three bathrooms occupy the remainder of the house, arranged to balance shared spaces with quieter, more private areas.

Glazing is carefully varied across the elevations, with full-height windows establishing broad connections with the landscape, while smaller vertical openings admit daylight and frame particular views without compromising privacy. The arrangement makes the house feel open to its surroundings without relying on uninterrupted expanses of glass everywhere. The courtyard also allows light to penetrate the centre of the plan and supports cross-ventilation.

Material choices help to mediate between the house and its rural setting. Oak flooring and joinery provide continuity across the interiors, while exposed brick wraps around the courtyard and entrance lobby, carrying an external material into the heart of the building. The effect is not to erase the distinction between inside and out, but to make the transition less abrupt.

Outside, the brickwork is particularly important to the building's character. The rear elevation, facing the wildflower meadows, is articulated by columns and exposed reconstituted stone lintels. Their horizontal emphasis introduces a measured rhythm against the softer, less ordered landscape, while the stone elements provide definition to the openings and contrast with the brick, bringing a more precise architectural line to the facade.

The timber structure, designed with minimal steel, was selected with environmental performance and sustainability in mind. Within the principal living space, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) joists and plywood elements remain visible, adding another layer of texture and reinforcing the restrained, Scandinavian-influenced aesthetic requested by the client. A bespoke kitchen, developed with Future Joinery Systems, uses parametric plywood detailing to bring a degree of individual craftsmanship to an otherwise modest palette. Its worktop is Dekton, introducing an engineered surface alongside the project's timber and masonry.

The landscape itself has also been brought into the design process, with Studio 31 Landscape Architects working with the existing woodland and native British vegetation, while the client cultivated the wildflower meadows and a kitchen garden. Together, these elements extend the ecological ambitions of the project beyond the building envelope, creating a setting that can develop and mature over time. And hidden below the meadow sits a ground-source heat pump, which complements the triple glazing, high levels of airtightness and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) used within.

Virginia Water demonstrates how a relatively restrained material palette can give a house both definition and a sense of belonging. Brick establishes its weight, reconstituted stone sharpens the architectural detail, and timber brings warmth to the structure and interior. Rather than competing with the landscape, the house uses these materials to make its presence felt quietly, with the courtyard and carefully framed openings keeping nature at the centre of the home.

All images © Jim Stephenson

Many surfaces are designed to look like other materials, not least with as digital printing technology continues to advance and improve. But it’s not often that a surface material will share almost all of the same visual qualities as something else. And yet, it’s not like there isn’t an appetite for it - just think about the enduring popularity of the Southbank Centre’s board-marked beton brut.

For Shifu Artisans, the tactile qualities of woven textiles provide the starting point for morphology™, where the textures and form of fabric are translated into ceramic to form permanent architectural finishes. The Asia-based design studio develops handcrafted tiles and vessels that bring texture, relief and material variation to interior surfaces. What’s more, they do so using ceramic content that is 50% recycled in its M2 and M3 collections.

The studio takes its name from the Chinese term 师傅 (Shifu), historically used to refer to master craftspeople, and its approach has material exploration at its core. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience across textiles, interior finishes and product design, founder Amy Saunders utilises hands-on research and prototyping to develop the collection. An interest in the relationship between craft, pattern and surface has led her to treat tiles as more than a background finish, with outcomes that play heavily with modularity,  light and shadow.

The M2 Textile Texture Tiles establish the collection’s connection to textiles through six ceramic surface textures. Rather than applying a woven pattern as a decorative image, Saunders explores the underlying qualities of textile construction, including repetition, rhythm and tactility. These qualities are reinterpreted through the ceramic surface, giving the tiles a sense of texture and relief that can be experienced visually and by hand.

Alongside this, M3 Braid develops this approach into a more pronounced architectural surface. Its offset oval forms are both concave and convex, creating a three-dimensional relief that introduces depth and shadow. The individual components can be combined, reversed and reconfigured to produce different patterns and orientations, allowing the surface to change according to how the elements are arranged. The collection also extends into objects through M4, comprising the Ellipse vase and Sway cup series. These continue the exploration of offset oval forms and textile-derived textures at a smaller scale.

The recycled ceramic content is an important part of the collections, although it is an inherent given,  rather than the sole focus. Instead, morphology™ explores how a material often treated in relatively conventional ways can be developed through changes in texture, geometry and production.

VASO Global is bringing recycled glass into structural construction, developing composite panels designed to make buildings quicker to manufacture and assemble, while reducing reliance on conventional construction methods. The Dumfries-based company has now opened its 60,000-square-feet manufacturing facility, marking a significant step from product development towards commercial production.

Co-founded by chief executive Eddie Black and chief technical officer Simon Parrish, VASO has spent almost four years developing its building system. The ambition is to combine digital design, precision manufacturing and semi-autonomous construction to deliver affordable, thermally efficient, low-carbon buildings at scale.

The opening of the new facility at Irongray Park, Dumfries, on 25 September 2026, marked the start of production on its first manufacturing line. The launch was attended by representatives from industry, investment organisations and the public sector, including Scottish Government Chief Entrepreneur Ana Stewart, who officially opened the site.

At the heart of the business is a structural composite panel manufactured predominantly from recycled waste glass. Rather than treating glass as a material destined for disposal, VASO uses it as a resource for building components, creating a route from waste material to structural application.

The company describes its product as a composite system rather than a conventional prefabricated panel. Its approach brings together material engineering and digitally controlled manufacture, with components produced off-site before being transported flat-packed for assembly. This shifts a substantial part of the construction process into a factory environment, with the intention of improving consistency, reducing on-site work and shortening building programmes.

The precise composition and manufacturing formulation remain central, but VASO identifies recycled glass as the principal material. The resulting panels are engineered for structural performance, thermal efficiency and durability. The inherent qualities of glass also mean resistance to fire, mould, flooding, insects and freeze-thaw conditions, and the team is also testing for extreme temperatures. Their objective is to create a robust building envelope that can help maintain comfortable internal temperatures while reducing the energy required for heating and cooling.

The panels are intended to form part of a complete building system, with digital design supporting the coordination of components before manufacture. VASO's production model is designed for repeatability and scale: the company says the panels required for a three-bedroom house can be manufactured in 500 minutes, with the components then assembled on site in a matter of days.

With a shortage of housing in the UK, the company’s objectives are timely. The system has received planning permission for an affordable housing development at Closeburn, north of Dumfries, on a brownfield site. The scheme comprises four homes, together with a home-working space and visitor bedroom. Developed in partnership with Nith Valley Leaf Trust and South of Scotland Community Housing, the project is intended to provide thermally comfortable, affordable rented homes for people with local connections.

However, the material's potential extends beyond residential construction, and with the ability to adapt its composite technology to different technical requirements, VASO is targeting the wider building and construction markets. The company has identified potential specialist applications for composite surface skins, including antimicrobial finishes, radio-frequency shielding, lead lining for medical imaging environments and surfaces for clean rooms and washdown areas. These applications point to a broader role for engineered composites where specific performance requirements are as important as structural function.

The launch of the Dumfries facility is therefore more than an increase in manufacturing capacity. It provides the infrastructure to test and refine production processes, develop the workforce and begin delivering projects using the system at a meaningful scale. The company has secured more than £5 million in investment from organisations including PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, Innovate UK Loans Limited and Eco Group. The new site is expected to support up to 70 jobs over five years, with 15 positions already filled by people from the Dumfries area at the time of its opening.

For Black, the milestone represents the culmination of a sustained effort to introduce a different approach to construction. Speaking at the launch, he said: “Today is far more than the opening of a production facility. Today is the continuation of a vision, a belief, and almost four years of determination, resilience, sacrifice, frustration, excitement, setbacks, breakthroughs and, above all, unwavering commitment.”

He also acknowledged the challenge of introducing new materials and processes into a traditionally conservative industry. “We firmly believe that moment has arrived,” he said, referring to the need for construction to choose between protecting established methods and embracing change.

With production now underway, VASO's immediate task is to demonstrate that its recycled-glass panels can translate their technical promise into reliable building delivery. The Closeburn development will provide an early application of the system, while a planned demonstration home in Annan is intended to make the technology more tangible.

The longer-term ambition is international, with a manufacturing model that the company hopes can be replicated in other locations. For now, the Dumfries facility establishes the production base from which VASO intends to take its material-led construction system into the market.

At Cairngorm Cottage in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, a new extension takes its cue from the solidity of the original Victorian house. Designed by Scottish practice Architecture Office, the addition replaces a dark, cramped 1970s rear extension with a kitchen, dining room, utility and entrance hall. Its defining feature is a thick masonry envelope built with reclaimed local granite, giving the contemporary addition a sense of permanence without overwhelming the modest cottage.

The clients bought the property in 2016 and wanted to make it more suitable for family gatherings across generations, while retaining what they describe through the brief as its “cottage-ness”: modest proportions, natural materials and a feeling of solidity. Rather than contrast the old house with a lightweight, extensively glazed addition, Architecture Office looked to the local building tradition and the original cottage’s proportions, orientation, roof levels, openings and stone coursing.

The extension sits lower than the main house and follows its orientation, reducing its projection into the garden. From the street, it remains within the existing building line. These decisions help the new volume sit quietly alongside the original, while its material treatment gives it a distinct architectural identity.

The practice prides itself on material simplicity, and here, the reclaimed granite forms the outer 300mm of walls that measure 705mm thick. Sourced from nearby sites, the stone was selected for its variation in colour and size, including warm peachy-pink tones that echo the original cottage. Rather than trying to realign those differences into a uniform finish, the architects retained the stone’s character as found, aligning the coursing with that of the existing building and the wider traditions of Aberdeenshire.

The result is a wall that reads as a substantial mass rather than a thin skin applied to a structure. A lime mortar slaistered finish gives the rear elevation a continuous, almost monolithic appearance, while deeply recessed openings make the wall thickness legible. Windows and doors appear carved into the masonry, framing views of the garden and bringing daylight into the new rooms without depending on large expanses of glass.  While aluminium coping, rainwater goods and vents provide a crisp contemporary contrast to the granite and lime.

Behind the stone, a clay-block walling system combines insulation and thermal mass within a vapour-open build-up. The blocks help regulate temperature and humidity, while providing a natural, breathable construction. The choice of clay continues the project’s interest in material character beyond the visible exterior, pairing the weight of the granite with a wall system intended to contribute to the internal environment.

Inside, clay plaster, Scottish ash joinery, oak flooring and stone worktops establish a restrained palette of tactile surfaces. Architecture Office designed the extension, kitchen and fixed joinery as a single composition, with the timber kitchen fabricated by Silvan Studio from three-ply Scottish ash. Its exposed grain and vertical staves bring texture to the room, while the individual units are arranged around a central island. The worktops are Swaledale Fossil limestone from Britannicus Stone, introducing another natural stone with its own geological character to the everyday working space.

The plan also improves the connection between the original house, the new rooms and the garden. A new entrance hall and boot room link the extension to the existing living area, while repositioned doors clarify circulation. The kitchen and dining space face north-west, using the depth of the openings to frame the garden and admit ambient light.

For Alexander Mackison, director of Architecture Office, the relationship between the materials and the form was central to connecting the old and new parts of the house. “Granite and clay became a way of connecting the old and new through material and construction,” he said.

Cairngorm Cottage’s 51-square-metre extension shows how a relatively modest addition can make a substantial change to the way a house works, while allowing local stone, traditional masonry cues and contemporary construction to shape the result.

All images © Richard Gaston