Stone matters is an experimentations-based research into the potentials for including structural stone in the language of con- temporary architecture and for combining traditional craftsmanship and materials with innovative construction techniques. First born as a reaction to a systematic misuse of clad stone in Palestine, the project takes its cue from the historic reoccurrence of stone-made architectural elements found in Palestine.

The architecture of Palestine combines disparate architectural elements brought by various civilizations from abroad with local elements found in situ 1. Through time, certain architectural attributes, originally found locally, returned to Palestine as imported architectural elements. In an attempt to blur the limits between local and global architecture, Stone matters puts forward the relevance of the research beyond space and time. To this day, Stone matters formalizes into a series of site specific re- al-scale experimentations (a vault, a lintel, a slab, a wall), academic articles, and a soon-to-be launched community based worldwide atlas of elements of architecture made out of stone.

In 2017, Stone matters took a wider international dimension with the Victoria and Albert museum (V&A museum) commission While We Wait (WWW) exhibited during the London Design Festival. Beyond the designed innovative construction principle based on ruled sur- faces stereotomy 2, WWW is a project about the cultural claim over nature in Palestine. Through stone experimentations, Stone matters is constantly nourished by site specific conditions at different scales: territorial limitations, natural and urban environments, historical contexts.

Embodying the series of experimentations and in continuity with WWW, the latest project of Stone matters is Analogy. It addresses the reoccurrence of stone-made forms and spatial configurations in Palestine through time. While proper to the constitution of the Palestinian city’s urban fabric, they are archetypal forms of geometry, spatial devices found throughout the history and distribution of architecture. Analogy explores the inherent qualities of architec- tural fundamental elements (including vaults, lintels, and columns) towards finding novel ways of expressing each. It deliberately de- sacralizes the use of stone, too often associated exclusively with noble constructions, towards creating a vocabulary of stone use in contemporary architecture. Analogy is also meant to be fed by an academic year-long student seminar, which would transform, in a second stage, into a master’s program.