Stone Federation has established this prize to recognise outstanding student projects that showcase the use of natural stone, and to support and encourage the next generation of architects to make good use of natural stone in construction.
Natural stone is durable, beautiful, and versatile. Compared with equivalent steel or reinforced concrete structures, it can offer significant carbon reductions.
This prize offers a platform for student projects that demonstrate a thorough understanding of natural stone and make a compelling case for its use and/or reuse.
The panel welcomes projects at any scale- from a modest domestic extension, private or public new build or retrofit, urban public realm, rural landscape, or national context. Each project should include design proposals that have a clear relationship with a particular site, and that demonstrate viability in construction.
The project might include one or more of the following:
– Load bearing/structural uses of natural stone
– Use of the full geological range of the chosen stone
– Celebrating the natural beauty of the material
- Natural Stone as a vernacular material, and how this continues to influence building typologies
- How natural stone might contribute to more sustainable building practices
– Using/reusing natural stone in a heritage/conservation context
- Natural Stone’s durability and longevity; the reuse of natural stone
Each entrant is asked to submit around 1000 words and 10 images, at least one of which should be a scale construction detail in plan and/or section.
The prize is open to any architecture student currently enrolled on an ARB/RIBA Part 1 or Part 2 course within the UK.
Projects submitted should have been produced by the applicant within the 2023-24 or 2024-25 academic years.
Although the submitted projects may include group work, the majority of the submission should have been produced by the applicant.
Any group work should be clearly annotated and credited to others involved in its production.
Please send your entry as a WeTransfer link with every file name starting with your first name and surname to awards@stonefed.org.uk.
