Could 2026 be the start of a new stone age?

By Thomas Lane2026-01-19T07:00:00

Design museum stone demonstrator ©Bas Princen

Source: Bas Princen

Structural engineer Webb Yates has completed its first structural stone building for a commercial developer. Thomas Lane reports on the firm’s 20-year mission to establish stone as a sustainable alternative to concrete

2025 was a good year for the engineer Webb Yates. The firm celebrated its 20th anniversary, during which time it has been on a mission to position stone as a significantly more sustainable structural material than concrete.

The year finished with a nine-storey residential building on London’s Finchley Road close to completion, the firm’s first structural stone building for a commercial developer. And, over in Earls Court, it launched a structural stone demonstration project in partnership with the Design Museum that uses standardised stone structural elements. The idea is that this will make adopting structural stone elements much easier and therefore more appealing for the mainstream industry.

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