Sustainability | Island Stone

Mattinson Associates, Isle of Wight Architects, explain why they love using local island stone on so many of their projects.Rich materiality is an important part of all of our design work and for a building to truly blend into its surroundings, it must be made with natural materials that wear gracefully in time like the occupants within them. Stone can give a building real identity and with careful consideration, can be sympathetic to the most sensitive of sites. Despite not being renewable, stone is a great material to use for sustainable projects, check out its eco-friendly qualities here:Natural Material

• The beauty of the stone is in its imperfections, with so many different textures, grains, shapes and colours, the natural material gives you a slice of nature that is unique to that specific piece. Particularly on the Isle of Wight, our local stone has a distinctive sandy colour that overtime weathers discreetly into the surroundings. With no harmful chemicals added, natural stone is a great way to add a historic, natural element to your build - hinting to its rich past.

Durable

• Natural stone is one of the most compact natural materials that can withstand wear and tear. It’s easy to maintain in comparison to materials like timber and is much stronger and less likely to cause maintenance and structural issues. The enduring life cycle of a piece of stone can be seen when looking at historic buildings and monuments - think of the Pyramids of Giza and Ancient Rome! 

Reusable

• Salvaging stone is a great option and something we do a lot of on the island where the island stone is rare. If you’re thinking of taking down a wall that is made from local stone, gently chip away at the top, moving horizontally and collect the stone piece by piece. It’s a great material to keep hold of for repairs, but if you won’t need it in the future, contact your local salvage company and get them to collect it. We tend to use Ryde Demolition for our projects, find out their details here.

The Process

• Being local, transportation costs and energy used for transportation are significantly low. Farmers and landowners are great people to get in contact with when you’re searching for local stone as they tend to dig up an awful lot of it as waste. Although we will eventually run out of “new” stone, there is always stone being salvages and reused elsewhere. 

To see one of our projects where we have reused island stone, follow the link: