Arts Thread

Henry Aldridge
Architecture

The Bartlett UCL

Specialisms: Architecture / Sustainable Design / Design for Social Good

Location: London, United Kingdom

henry-aldridge ArtsThread Profile
The Bartlett UCL

Henry Aldridge

Henry Aldridge ArtsThread Profile

First Name: Henry

Last Name: Aldridge

Specialisms: Architecture / Sustainable Design / Design for Social Good

Sectors: Product / Architecture / Interiors / Product / Architecture / Interiors / Fashion/Textiles/Accessories

My Location: London, United Kingdom

University / College: The Bartlett UCL

Course / Program Title: Architecture

About

The Chalk institute: growing a stone architecture

Chalk extraction to produce concrete has scattered quarries throughout the landscape, many of which are simply left as empty pits. The unique geology of chalk means that these sites have incredible ecological potential, but this is rarely capitalised upon. The project uses waste concrete to work into these quarries, and in doing so study and intervene into their ecology. In this, it becomes a reversal of the extraction which produced the quarries, creating a cycle of material flows. These materials are used to grow stone through a process which is understood through study of speleothems: cave formations such as stalactites and stalagmites.

 These studies inform a system that allows for the proposal of The Chalk Institute, an organisation that serves to research ecologies and hydrologies of chalk to better restore quarries. Stone grows over the building over time, gradually forming new spaces to increase the capacity as research generates new physical interventions. The climactically responsive nature of the grown stone means that, made of chalk and concrete runoff, the building becomes a history of the site, reflecting both its history in extraction and its future growth.