Jonathan Lees, Jonathan Lees Architects LLP

The language of Architecture is as diverse as the languages that we speak across the world, each having regional dialects, each having their uniqueness and place in our societies. Despite the variations, despite the challenges that each present, one thing is common throughout – the use of natural stone.

Modern architecture does not necessarily have to mean that the building is a particular style or language. Instead, it should be used as a description for the spirit of the age. We currently live in a technological age where techniques are improving, materials becoming more advanced and widespread despite a resource shortage, and above all the progression of a unified and considerate understanding of how our buildings affect the environment and our wellbeing in both their construction and their continued use.

An argument that has been presented to me on numerous occasions is that mass-built masonry no longer has a place in ‘modern’ construction and that we are unable to achieve the details. This argument is poorly constructed and based on weak foundations. Our knowledge of historic masonry has never been better. Readily available archaeological research, advanced building conservation techniques and modern computer modelling have provided advantageous tools to studying Architects and masons across the world.

Amongst this advance, traditional building techniques have rarely been so important, not least because of their environmental credentials, but also because of how the details used in masonry construction are so transferable to the way in which we construct to modern standards.

We have many advantages over previous generations. We have an easily accessible source of knowledge, an ability to network and build relationships in the industry, courses on design and masonry across the world and organisations that support the industry. We have materials from across the globe that are sourced sustainably and an abundance of readily available materials that support the construction of traditionally built structures. We are not faced with the same challenges of our forebears, where materials were often difficult to come by. We can use stone local to the region that the project is being undertaken, to reduce the embodied energy in the materials. We can use stainless steel fixings that are often custom made, to ensure the longevity of the connection details, which have previously failed due to a lack of a suitable material. We have an abundance of beautiful stone in a country that is famed for its natural materials. We have some of the finest masons in the world, with new technology that many who work in the industry are not even aware of.

I have had the pleasure of working with a number of these industry leaders on our projects, using traditional techniques and practices alongside modern machining equipment to achieve our ambitious designs. It is our remit as designers to push our own boundaries and to use our knowledge of traditional building techniques and apply and adapt it to our current building trends. These trends will evolve, as they have always done, but the one constant will be the use of stone in building.

We need to ensure that the traditional techniques and practices that have been learnt and passed down through many generations are not lost, but are developed and applied alongside our ever expanding knowledge and use of technology in our industry. The vast knowledge of stone that we have accumulated over thousands of years enables us to create fabulous structures, often a result of the many people involved in the process – the use of technology is a means to this end, to economise time and make the details more affordable. But the knowledge of how the stone works, how it cuts, how it takes a sharp edge, how it will weather and interact with other materials, that is the knowledge that we need to preserve, as without it, our designs and buildings would fail. It takes human skill to interpret our design drawings and to translate those features and details into natural stone. These are skills that we need to encourage and nurture.

So when my friend says to me ‘we don’t have the skill to produce such things anymore’, I show him the photograph of a small building that we did in 2020, where a talented 26 year mason interpreted our sketches and carved the sandstone cartouche to the pediment. A picture tells a thousand words.

Jonathan Lees