Stone instead of concrete and steel: An unusual multi-story building has been built in London
The world's first high-rise building with a stone exoskeleton has been built in England. In the Petra Heights residential complex located in north London, thousands of tons of natural stone were used instead of traditional steel and reinforced concrete structures.
Stone instead of concrete and steel: an unusual multi-story building has been built in London
The project was carried out in collaboration between the Groupwork architectural bureau and the Webb Yates engineering company.
Petra Heights is located at 317 Finchley Road in London and consists of three separate blocks ranging in height from six to ten stories.
The most unusual aspect of the building is that its main load-bearing structure is an unreinforced stone grid-exoskeleton located on the outside.
It bears not only the weight of the building but also wind loads. For this reason, the project lacks the concrete shear core and concrete columns typically used in tall buildings.
Furthermore, steel reinforcement in the traditional sense was not used in the structure. The stone serves simultaneously as both a load-bearing element and a facade. Therefore, the building did not require separate facade cladding.
The frame of Petra Heights consists mainly of two types of volcanic stone — Sicilian basalt and Norwegian larvikite.
The authors present this project as a continuation of nearly 15 years of research by architects and engineers. Their goal is to prove that natural stone can be a practical and relatively low-carbon alternative to steel and concrete.
The source notes that steel and concrete production together account for approximately 16 percent of humanity's global emissions.
Experts estimate that the stone exoskeleton technology used in Petra Heights can reduce emissions by up to approximately 80 percent compared to a similar structure with a steel frame. Importantly, they emphasize that this result can be achieved without additional construction costs.
Experts also believe that this structural principle can be scaled up to 30-story skyscrapers in the future.
At the same time, Petra Heights is not built entirely of stone.
The construction site is located in a complex area — between a railway station and the six-lane Finchley Road highway. For this reason, some traditional materials had to be retained.