While the British weather continues to be predictably unpredictable, the riotous display of colour that the flora and fauna of the natural world are putting on right now is an unmistakably Springtime event. 

The cyclical return of plant life is a welcome relief, perhaps even distraction, during challenging and unsettling times. Yet, as this eruption of buoyant vitality unfurls up and down the country, I’m reminded of a surface brand that allows spring-like-feels in our interior spaces all year round.

Austrian manufacturer Organoid’s natural surfaces are unmistakably architectural, coming in panels, laminates and acoustic finishes designed for interiors. Yet they are composed not of engineered composites or mineral aggregates, but of recognisable fragments of the natural landscape itself. Alpine hay, wildflowers, moss, lavender, rose petals and even reclaimed coffee grounds are pressed directly into surface materials, preserving colour, scent and texture in a way rarely seen within contemporary specification culture.

Founded in Tirol, the company sits within a growing European movement exploring how buildings might reconnect occupants with natural material cycles. Rather than imitating nature through pattern or print, Organoid works with actual organic matter, embedding plant fibres into breathable carrier layers using low-energy production methods and largely natural binders. 

Texture is central: grasses remain tactile, petals retain variation, and no two panels are identical. What’s more, many Organoid products use rapidly renewable plant matter sourced from regional agriculture, including by-products that might otherwise be discarded. 

The panels can be applied as wall coverings, furniture finishes, acoustic elements and joinery surfaces, offering designers a material that performs technically while retaining sensory depth.

As interiors become ever more technologically mediated, materials capable of engaging smell, touch and memory are gaining renewed attention. A wall finished in Alpine hay or wildflower meadow introduces seasonality into architecture, and a welcome reminder that buildings exist within ecological systems rather than apart from them.

That said, Organoid’s work poses an interesting question: what constitutes permanence today? Stone represents endurance measured in geological time, while biomaterials such as these suggest a parallel value in renewal, growth and cyclical life. 

What is interesting is that both approaches challenge the dominance of synthetic finishes and point toward a broader material palette grounded in natural processes. Both forms of bio-derived materials demonstrate how surface innovation may lie not only in new technologies, but in rediscovering the sensory and environmental intelligence already present in the natural world. Regardless, it’s always a healthy feeling to be reminded of nature’s ceaseless and indiscriminate life-giving forces.

It is often said that there is an innate desire in our species to lay down roots of one kind or another. Houses generally become true homes when there is a deep connection between the building and its inhabitants, as well as its surrounding local heritage and landscape. A sensitive extension and refurbishment of a historic house in South Cambridgeshire demonstrates how contemporary architecture can reinforce these long-established relationships within residential design.

Completed by Neil Dusheiko Architects, Church House sits within a conservation area directly opposite the Grade II* listed All Saints Church. The project reworks both the main residence and its former coach house, strengthening spatial and visual connections between the home, its outbuildings and the historic stone church beyond.

Originally arranged around a more inward-looking plan, the house has been opened towards the garden through a new single-storey rear extension. Rather than alter the formal street elevation, the intervention focuses on the private side of the property, creating a contemporary living space orientated towards views of the church spire, which is now a constant reference point within everyday domestic life.

The clients, Susannah and Jonathan Manning, who both work in fashion, were pivoting from London life and seeking a long-term family home for them and their three teenage children. Manning’s early exposure to historic architecture, shaped by her father’s work as an architectural historian, informed a design brief rooted in continuity rather than contrast, with a deep desire for a connection to place and memory.

Material selection plays a central role in anchoring the new work within its surroundings. Yellow Cambridge stock brick and flint roofing references the textures and tonal qualities found across the village and church fabric, allowing the extension to sit comfortably within the historic context while maintaining a clearly contemporary expression.

Inside, the ground floor has been reorganised to establish a clearer spatial sequence from entrance to garden. A relocated WC frees the entrance hall to operate as a central circulation spine, while kitchen, pantry and dining areas are combined into a single open volume defined by proportion and controlled sightlines. Large-format glazing draws daylight deep into the plan, while a subtly lowered floor level aligns interior and garden without compromising privacy from the neighbouring churchyard.

Architectural references to ecclesiastical space feature, although through the structure itself, rather than mere decoration. Exposed rafters and a measured ceiling rhythm echo the spatial order of a church nave and nearby outbuildings, and are translated into a domestic scale. Materials including reclaimed brick, oak joinery, brass fittings and handmade lighting reinforce a restrained palette focused on longevity and tactility. Upstairs, interventions remain deliberately light-touch, retaining original sash windows and cornices while introducing a new ensuite to the main bedroom.

At the end of the garden, the former coach house has been transformed from storage building into flexible family accommodation. A deteriorated lean-to has been replaced with a timber extension incorporating full-height glazing, an oriel window and a green roof. Its form establishes a quiet dialogue between old and new structures, visually linking coach house, main extension and church into a cohesive architectural composition.

The result is a contemporary family home that sensitively interweaves itself into its historic village setting, and looks set to be a well-loved space for a long time to come. 

With less than a week to go before the Stone & Surface Show opens its doors, the final installment of what to expect from the event programme has just dropped - and it continues to tantalise!

Taking place at ExCeL London from 12–14 May, the exhibition will focus on innovative applications of stone and surface materials with a programme of talks examining how technology is reshaping specification, fabrication and construction practices across the sector running alongside it across all three days.

A key installation at the show is Arch Revival, a pair of freestanding vaulted hyperbolic arches standing four metres tall and constructed from a single layer of stone bricks. Designed by Hawkins\Brown with engineering support from Webb Yates Engineers, the arches use sandstone bricks supplied by Hutton Stone and Portland stone bricks from Albion Stone.

The project makes use of previously ‘unloved stone’, which is material rejected for aesthetic reasons because of geological variation, to demonstrate stone’s potential as a load-bearing, low-carbon construction material. According to the project team, the structure embodies 66% less carbon than an equivalent construction built using clay-fired bricks.

The sustainability theme continues in the Architects’ Theatre, where Toby Pear of Article 25 will present Building with Laterite Stone – Low-Carbon, Affordable, Beautiful. The talk examines the Collège Hampaté Bá project in Niger, where locally sourced laterite stone has been used to construct classroom buildings as an alternative to cement block construction.

Digital tools and material reuse will be explored on the Main Stage during Upcycling Stone Through Technology, featuring architect Levent Ozruh alongside Robert Greer of Paye Stonework and Restoration and Salvatore Caruso of Stone Automation. The session will examine how laser scanning, radar technology and digital twins can support reuse of stone in retrofit and heritage projects.

Ozruh will also present ANTI-RUIN, developed with Pietro Odaglia at ETH Zurich, which uses digital printing techniques to create new stone composites from waste material. A film documenting the making of the installation — filmed at Lasa Marmo Quarry, Digital Building Technologies at ETH Zurich and the Arsenale during the Venice Biennale — will be screened in the Surfaces Cinema.

While in the Architects’ Theatre, Studio Bark will discuss Building, Unbuilding, and the Carbon Balance, a session outlining how its U-Build system enables modular, bio-based workspaces designed for relocation and reuse.

Artificial intelligence and its implications for architecture and design inevitably form a significant part of this year’s programme. Design journalist Riya Patel will chair the panel AI in A&D – Friend or Foe?, featuring Anna Burles of Run For The Hills, Professor Oliver Wilton of The Bartlett School of Architecture, and architect and digital creator Agata Murasko. The discussion will explore AI’s potential to improve workflows, expand creative processes and influence material specification, while also addressing concerns around intellectual property, authorship and employment. Murasko will also present Can AI be a design process ally? at the Architects’ Theatre.

Further sessions include Ron Zaum of Structured AI demonstrating AI compliance reviews using Amin Taha’s Finchley Road project as a case study, and Ryan Canning of ARCHITEXTURES discussing digital material libraries and specification workflows.

Alongside technological change, the programme also considers workforce challenges facing the built environment. The panel How can we fix the looming skills gap? will include Aisha Lysejko of 2040 Leaders, Jamie Coath of Purcell and stonemason Emily Guest, examining recruitment, training and diversity within construction trades.

Sam Patel, Divisional Director of the Built Environment Super Event, which combines the Stone & Surfaces Show with UK Construction Week London and FutureBuild, said the exhibition aims to highlight how innovation, sustainability and digital technologies are transforming stone and surface materials across the supply chain.

The co-located events will give visitors access to all three exhibitions within ExCeL London.

Register for the Stone & Surfaces Show for free here

London is a city famed for its far-reaching history and rich cultural identity, which is imbued within the ever-evolving layers of architecture that make up the capital city. But, rather inevitably, as the built environment changes, elements can disappear - even those created from that seemingly permanent of all materials, stone.

The reinstatement of the lost statuary at the Grand Hall entrance of Olympia London represents two years of careful historical research, engineering and traditional stone carving. Completed by specialist conservation contractor DBR, the project restores three significant figures removed during mid-20th-century alterations, returning the Victorian façade to its intended composition.

Originally constructed in 1886 as the National Agricultural Hall, Olympia’s entrance pediment was designed with sculptural figures that expressed the building’s agricultural purpose. Historic records referenced only a seated figure of Britannia, yet archival photographs suggested a more complex arrangement. DBR’s conservation team undertook an extensive investigation, consulting historical sources and sculptural specialists to establish the original scheme.

Research identified the figures as Demeter, Greek goddess of agriculture, flanked by Triptolemus and Persephone, a classical grouping symbolising cultivation, harvest and renewal. The discovery reshaped the project, allowing reinstatement to proceed on a historically accurate basis rather than conjectural reconstruction. 

Material selection formed the next critical phase, with new blocks of Portland stone sourced and tested to ensure compatibility with the surviving masonry. Detailed technical drawings established dimensions, jointing and fixing strategies, although a significant challenge was still to come in reinstating the stonework. The original plinth structure had been removed decades earlier, leaving masonry incapable of supporting the weight of the new sculpture. Working within listed building constraints, the team developed a concealed structural steel frame to carry the load while preserving the visual integrity of the pediment. The intervention demonstrates a recurring principle in DBR’s work: modern engineering employed discreetly to sustain historic fabric.

The carving itself was led by master mason Simon Smith and DBR’s in-house team of specialist carvers, using historic photographs alongside classical sculptural references. Once the hand carving was complete, each element was lifted, positioned and jointed with precision, balancing traditional craftsmanship with contemporary installation methods.

Indeed, the project reflects DBR’s broader position within the conservation sector. Working across projects ranging from major public landmarks to smaller heritage buildings, the company has developed a model that combines craft skills, technical management and research-led conservation. This approach recognises that restoration increasingly requires interdisciplinary collaboration, not only to preserve architectural character but also to extend the lifespan of existing buildings as part of a more sustainable construction culture.

In an era when retrofit and conservation are central to reducing embodied carbon, projects such as this demonstrate how reinstatement and repair can contribute to both cultural continuity and environmental responsibility.

AK Surface Solutions specialises in the repair, restoration and maintenance of architectural surfaces, working across natural stone, terrazzo, concrete and resin finishes. The company has grown out of the success of Concrete & Stone Solutions, expanding from a specialist focus on concrete and hard-surface repair into a broader provider of surface care that includes the machinery and cleaning products they know from experience do the job. A dedicated supplier of Lavina equipment and official reseller of Faber products, the company supports both conservation and commercial projects, extending the life and performance of existing materials through technical surface expertise. Owner Artur Kowalczyk shared his unique insights about the industry in the latest of our Surface Perspectives series.

What does a typical day look like for you?

A typical day usually starts at the office, where I spend some time working on our new B2B business, AK Surface Solutions. That can mean packing orders, working on the retail website, adding new products, checking stock, placing orders when needed, and trying to keep on top of SEO when time allows.

I also go through enquiries and reply to emails, WhatsApp messages and customer questions for AK Surface Solutions and for my restoration business Concrete & Stone Solutions. These can be anything from product orders and trade enquiries to technical questions, quotations or advice about stone and hard surface restoration.

If we have orders during the day for the next day delivery, my wife also comes into the office to help with packing and sending parcels, and she takes care of the paperwork and admin side of the business. After that, I usually load the van from our unit, which we also use for storing my restoration equipment. I am still very much on the tools myself through Concrete & Stone Solutions, so a big part of my day can also be spent on site carrying out stone, concrete and hard surface restoration work.

After work, I often try to go through messages again and reply to clients where I can. When time allows, I also like to escape for an hour to my loft and jump on my rowing machine, and most importantly, spend some time with my family. So the days can be busy, but I enjoy the mix of practical work, customer contact, and building AK Surface Solutions.

How integral are materials/surfaces to your day-to-day? 

Materials and surfaces are a very important part of my day-to-day. I’m always dealing with cleaners, sealers and diamond tools, so I’m constantly thinking about which product or method is right for each surface. In my opinion, almost every job needs a slightly different approach, especially with stone. You can’t always use the same process on every floor, because the type of stone, condition, finish, age and previous treatments can all affect how to restore it.

I also speak quite a lot with regular clients, many of whom are experienced people in the trade. We often talk about products, tools, different methods they used, or myself on certain jobs to get the best finish. I’m always happy to share what I’ve learnt over the years, much of it from being on the tools myself, but I also learn a lot from those conversations too. That exchange of knowledge is something I really value.

What are the biggest lessons you have taken forward from your original training?

One of the biggest parts of my training was with Tiling Logistics, and also learning from Kevin and Antony Martin. That gave me a strong foundation, but I think some of the biggest lessons come from being on-site and dealing with real jobs.

One job that really stands out was my first marble grinding project. There was a lot of time pressure, and I was working from early morning until late evening every day, with barely any breaks — usually just a quick sandwich while emptying the vacuum or sorting something out.

I didn’t really make any money on that job because it took much longer than expected. It was probably the hardest seven days of work I have ever done, but what I learnt from it changed my confidence completely. After that, I felt I had reached a different level in stone restoration.

For me, training is very important, but the real education also comes from difficult jobs, problem-solving, and learning how different stones behave when you are actually working with them.

Which project/s are you most proud of being involved with and why?

From my hands-on restoration work, one project I’m especially proud of is Ipswich Museum. The building is currently undergoing a major £12.3m+ redevelopment to restore its Victorian features while also modernising the facility. It is a Grade II listed building, so being involved in that kind of project felt very special.

My company was responsible for restoring the floors, including an original quarry tile floor dating back to 1881, which had been covered for many years. That project stands out because of the history of the floor, but also because of the challenges involved.

The red quarry tiles were very shallow, while the black tiles were bevelled, which made the floor very uneven and wavy in places. It was not ideal or safe to walk on, so we had to carefully grind the surface down. The black quarry tiles were not full-bodied, so there was a limit to how far we could go, and we had to be very controlled with the process.

We also had to remove years of built-in dirt and grime, especially from the low spots, before closing the surface up to 200 grit and sealing it. It was a careful balance between improving the floor, making it more practical, and respecting the age and character of the original material.

What do you feel are the main challenges facing the stone and surfaces industry today?

One challenge I have come across recently is the confusion between real stone and artificial or composite materials. Some products are marketed with names that sound very natural or stone-like, so customers believe they are choosing a stone surface, when actually it may be acrylic, resin-based or only contain some stone dust.

I’m currently restoring 45 worktops for one of my commercial clients at a retirement village, and many of the residents thought they had chosen stone because the material was called “Earthstone” and they didn’t have a chance to see it before they purchased. In reality, they’re acrylic worktops with some stone content, so it behaves very differently from natural stone and is a very soft material.

In your opinion, what are the positives of using stone in the built environment? 

For me, one of the biggest positives of using stone in the built environment is that it lasts. It is a natural material with its own character, and every piece is slightly different, which makes it unique and beautiful.

Another big advantage is that stone can be restored rather than replaced. Like wood, it can often be brought back to a very high standard, sometimes almost as new, with the right process and knowledge. That makes it a very practical and sustainable material when it is looked after properly.

Stone also has a quality and feel that is difficult to copy with artificial materials. It can suit both old and modern buildings, and over time, it can develop character rather than just looking worn out.

How does sustainability shape your thinking and decision-making, and how do materials fit into this?

Instead of removing stone and sending it to waste, we can extend its life and make it beautiful again. Good restoration protects the original material and helps clients get much more life from the surfaces they already have. With the right protection, stone stays looking great a lot longer without the need for restoration

Stone took centre stage during this year’s Milan Design Week with 7+1 Acts of Survival, an exhibition asking what allows materials and the ideas they shape to endure across time.

Curated by Librizzi and Robustini at the new Milan cultural platform THE LINE, the exhibition brought together seven international designers, each invited to respond to a single starting point: a 50 × 50 × 50cm block of black African stone formed more than 2.5 billion years ago. From this shared geological origin emerged a series of works positioned somewhere between sculpture, architecture and functional object.

Rather than treating stone as a finished architectural surface, the exhibition reframed it as an active participant in cultural memory. Each designer interpreted survival differently, through carving, subtraction, structural manipulation or symbolic gesture. 

The pieces on display included Maurizio, a table of interlocking stone shaped through stereotomy created by AAU Anastas. Brumance chose the act of subtraction as their focal point, with all the pieces cut during the creation of their minimal chair being used to form complementary furniture. Perhaps even more conceptually, Studio MK27 chose to reinterpret cutting dust in a unique circular process that visualises both literal and metaphorical dust on the surface of their low table.

Other participants included Kengo Kuma, Bernard Khoury, Claudio Silvestrin, and Ugo Cacciatori, with all the pieces exploring durability not simply as permanence, but as the ability of materials to adapt, carry meaning and remain relevant across generations.

The works were arranged along a linear 30-metre exhibition space, encouraging visitors to move sequentially through the installation. Lighting designer PSLab developed a restrained scheme that emphasised texture, shadow and geological depth, allowing subtle differences in finish and form to emerge.

Production partner Casone Group supplied the stone blocks and provided fabrication expertise, underscoring the continuing importance of specialist craftsmanship in translating conceptual design into physical material.

While Milan Design Week frequently foregrounds novelty, 7+1 Acts of Survival offered a quieter reflection on durability, reminding visitors that innovation often begins with reinterpreting materials already shaped by deep geological time. 

All Images © Piercarlo Quecchia

A recent unique exhibition at Somerset House has invited visitors to reconsider their relationship with the ground beneath their feet — not simply as landscape or construction resource, but as something to be tasted.

The Museum of Edible Earth, created by artist and researcher masharu and first founded in Amsterdam in 2017, brought together more than 600 edible samples of soil, clay, chalk, volcanic rock and limestone sourced from 44 countries. Its core theme centred on how humans understand and value earth materials, which resonates beyond the gallery setting, particularly for those working with natural materials in the built environment.

The exhibition explored geophagy, the ancient practice of eating earth for nutritional, cultural or medicinal purposes. Found across continents and cultures, the tradition challenges modern Western assumptions that soil exists only as something to build on or extract from. Instead, it positions earth as a material with sensory, cultural and even emotional meaning.

At the centre of the show was a communal tasting table where visitors could sample carefully sourced earth materials accompanied by tasting cards describing mineral content, flavour profiles and cultural histories. The idea was less culinary novelty than an attempt to reconnect people with the geological substances that underpin daily life, from agriculture and ceramics to architecture and stone construction.

The premise raises an intriguing question: how differently might materials be specified, quarried or valued if they were understood not only visually or structurally, but sensorially? Stone, after all, shares origins with many of the clays and mineral soils presented in the exhibition, shaped by geological time yet frequently reduced to technical performance data alone.

Working with landscape designers The Land Gardeners, the creative team also created printing ink made from Somerset House’s own compost, generated from previous hempcrete exhibition walls and coffee waste collected onsite. The walls themselves came from The Land Gardeners, 2025 exhibition SOIL, thus forging a novel circular experiment in reusing exhibition materials rather than discarding them after installation that flowed through into this new, thought-provoking earth-iteration. 

Eating soil may not become standard industry practice anytime soon. But the exhibition offered a reminder that stone, clay and earth are not simply products or finishes. By reframing earth as something culturally embedded rather than inert, it encouraged visitors to rethink humanity’s relationship with materials as part of a deeper geological continuum that architecture continually reshapes, extracts and inhabits.

With over 60 years of experience in the processing and supply of natural stone for the built environment, Italian company Savema has recently entered a new phase in its development following the acquisition of a majority stake in the company by a leading Italian investment group.

Bloomberg HQ

The new ownership brings experience across sectors such as luxury hospitality, high-end real estate development, and the yachting industry. Based in Pietrasanta, in the Carrara stone district, Savema operates as a fully integrated stone contractor, managing the process from quarry sourcing through to fabrication.

The company already owns two quarries and has developed long-standing relationships with quarry operators worldwide, enabling it to work across a wide range of materials, including marble, limestone, granite, and travertine.

 World Trade Center

Over the decades, Savema has contributed to a number of complex, high-end international projects, working alongside leading architects, developers, and contractors. Its portfolio includes major cultural and commercial developments such as the Bloomberg Headquarters in London, designed by Foster + Partners, where Savema supplied the stone façade and lobby, The Shard, and One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) in New York, where Savema supplied interior stone works, as well as iconic projects across the UK and North America.

World Trade Center

The company hopes the transaction will support further investment in production capabilities, technologies, and material research, while also reinforcing its presence in key international markets across the northern hemisphere and the Middle East.

The Shard

As the use of natural stone in architecture continues to evolve, including toward more bespoke and technically advanced applications, an even higher level of coordination is required across the supply chain. The new ownership is expected to enhance Savema’s ability to respond to increasingly demanding project requirements, where design ambition, material performance, and execution capabilities must be closely aligned.

The Shard

The company has said it will maintain its focus on delivering project-specific solutions and looks forward to supporting clients with its technical expertise and long-standing experience with complex architectural work.

The retrofit of the Pyramid House in Milton Keynes by Khan Bonshek revisits one of the experimental homes built for the 1981 Homeworld Expo, updating a postmodern architectural curiosity for contemporary living while retaining the spatial character that defined its original ambition. 

Constructed as part of a group of 36 prototype houses commissioned by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation to explore future models of domestic life, the Pyramid House represents a period when housing innovation was closely tied to technological optimism. More than four decades later, the challenge lay not in reinvention, but in adapting an unconventional geometry to present-day patterns of occupation and energy performance.

The project began with a modest brief to improve usability within the tightly constrained eaves. However, the architects quickly identified wider opportunities to rethink circulation and spatial relationships throughout the three-storey house. The triangular plan, defined by tapering walls and sloping roofs, required careful recalibration to balance functionality with the playful postmodern identity of the building.

Central to the intervention is a reorganisation of movement through the home. Previously fragmented rooms connected more as a sequence of set pieces than a cohesive dwelling. By removing partitions and restructuring the plan around a clear vertical axis, the architects established a more legible internal hierarchy organised broadly into working, living and resting zones.

The stairwell became the primary architectural device. A new sculptural spiral staircase, fabricated from stacked birch plywood and prefabricated by Landmark Joinery, acts as both circulation and lightwell. Rising through the building’s full height beneath an apex lantern skylight, the stair draws daylight deep into the plan, visually linking floors while reinforcing the spatial drama inherent to the pyramid form.

Material decisions play a significant role in unifying the interior. A restrained palette combines light oak panelling with natural terrazzo surfaces that anchor the main living areas. Rather than competing with the building’s geometry, these finishes provide continuity, allowing subtle tonal shifts to distinguish daytime social spaces from quieter areas located higher within the eaves. Smaller volumes created by the sloping envelope are used intentionally to form intimate reading corners, guest sleeping pods and a bespoke sauna, demonstrating how constraints can generate spatial character.

Alongside spatial reconfiguration, the project addresses long-term performance. Two ground source heat pumps, improved insulation and enhanced airtightness significantly reduce operational energy demand, allowing the experimental house of the early 1980s to meet contemporary expectations for environmental efficiency.

The result is less a restoration than a careful recalibration. By working with, rather than against, the building’s unusual form, Khan Bonshek demonstrates how architecturally distinctive housing can be adapted for modern occupation without erasing its origins. The Pyramid House now operates as a viable long-term home, illustrating how retrofit can extend the life of late-20th-century domestic experimentation while aligning it with current priorities around comfort, sustainability and material longevity.

All Images © James Reteif

A major new stone artwork celebrating the history of Mayfair has been unveiled at the £1billion One Carrington development in central London. It’s being billed as a levelling-up project for the district, which is already seen as one of the most luxurious and wealthiest in the city. That richness extends to the history of the area, which, as a long-established cultural and economic artery of the capital, is layered with stories old and new. Thanks to an artistic intervention, some of those rich tales are now captured in the very surface of the space for all to see.

The mixed-use scheme, developed by Motcomb Estates and designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, transforms a former car park site into a new destination combining residential apartments, offices, restaurants, galleries and retail space. The project also reopens historic pedestrian connections between Shepherd Market and Piccadilly, restoring public access through an area previously closed for centuries.

As part of the development, curator Zoë Allen of Artistic Statements commissioned a permanent public artwork intended to anchor the scheme within Mayfair’s historic context. Following an open call, London-based creative studio Acrylicize was selected to design a large stone-carved wall installation positioned at the main entrance.

The work is carved into Diano Reale stone sourced by AHMM from Sardinia, and was specified for its restrained veining and consistency, allowing detailed engraving while maintaining a refined architectural appearance. The carved façade forms part of the wider stone terraces and external envelope designed to integrate art directly into the building fabric rather than treat it as an applied feature.

Illustrations by Acrylicize designer Emma Wild were developed in an etched style referencing traditional stone carving techniques. Working with local historian Peter Berthoud, the design evolved from a simple historical timeline into a series of narrative vignettes depicting stories from Mayfair’s past - including lesser-known or forgotten moments. They include iconic landmarks such as the ancient Egyptian statue Sekhmet, which has stood guard over Bond Street since 1917, King Charles II’s alleged secret tunnels, and the wartime use of nearby Down Street Underground Station.

Accessibility formed part of the design brief, with braille elements incorporated into the stone surface and lower carvings, including animal and flower motifs, positioned to engage younger audiences. Lighting and placement were carefully considered to encourage pedestrians to pause within what the design team describes as a non-commercial civic space within a dense urban setting.

Marc Williams of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris said the installation works “harmoniously within the constrained site” while celebrating the reopening of a historic connection through Mayfair. But perhaps most refreshingly, while the development offers a new pedestrian connection between Shepherd Market and Piccadilly,  Acrylicize’s intervention provides “a moment of reflection and intrigue” for residents and visitors. A timely piece of placemaking formed in a characterful material suited to longevity. 

All Images © Mark Cocksedge