The return of the well-known rubble stones in the form of modern stone bricks
Below is an article extracted from Stone Ideas Magazine
With the increased attention to the ecological footprint, natural stone is also gaining new friends in walls and supports of all kinds
Stone bricks are attracting more and more attention. They are building elements made of natural stone that are based on the sizes of bricks or tiles. In principle, however, all sizes are possible, as the bricks are cut from larger raw pieces. In addition to the low ecological footprint that the material is known to have, they are also strong in terms of resource protection because they can be made from leftover material from the quarry or processing.
Numerous companies have machine lines for production. In 2024, the southern English companies Hutton Stone and Albion Stone showed a prototype for a type of bus stop in the middle of London. The retaining walls were made of the companies’ sandstone or limestone, respectively.
The color nuances of the material naturally expand the design possibilities with bricks. Then there are the diverse surfaces.
We show some project photos from Hutton Stone and their yellowish Darney sandstone. The sharp edges and corners that you can otherwise only achieve with bricks or clinker bricks are striking.
Stone bricks can also be used to create load-bearing walls. The stone’s high compressive strength has an impact here. The great durability is also a plus.
For the bricklayers, there is no difference in processing between man-made bricks and stone bricks.
Marcus Paine, Managing Director of Hutton Stone, puts the topic in a larger context. “Stone bricks are actually just an update of the classic random rubble walls,“ he says. Although these were also made of natural stone, they were usually made of roughly hewn individual pieces. “Natural stone was pushed out of this area and into the luxury sector by industrially manufactured building materials.”
