Lunchtime CPD Seminar Series ‘Stone Futures’ - Number 2: Marcus Paine and Pierre Bidaud – Specifying Stone and Stone Bricks
Across the autumn and winter, Scotland East Region, Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) are excited to launch a new lunchtime CPD seminar series dedicated to one of the most enduring yet ever evolving materials in our built environment: Stone
Marcus Paine, Hutton Stone
Hutton Stone’s highly skilled and friendly team of 44 staff are dedicated to supplying the finest quality, natural and sustainable UK sandstone. With Production Facilities in the Scottish Borders and North Northumberland they supply throughout Scotland and across the UK.
Founded in 1994 by Managing Director Marcus Paine, a 5th Generation Quarrier and Past President of The Stone Federation GB, the company operates three exclusive sandstone quarries with state-of-the-art sawing and production equipment and also stocks a further 20 other types of British stone to serve their wide client base. Hutton Stone specialises in New Build and Restoration supply projects with highly skilled Banker Masons, Carvers, and mass produced walling production too. In 2024, as part of a focus on a sustainable future for Natural Stone it launched Darney Heritage Natural Stone Bricks, a new sustainable construction product with a fraction of the carbon footprint of clay-fired bricks.
Marcus has spent the majority of his time over the past few years promoting a new and highly sustainable vision of his historic trade to a new generation of design professionals. He shortly will become the next President of the European Stone Federation “EuroRoc” and continues to promote the idea of both a New Stone Age and a reconnection with materials, makers and creators in a modern Arts and Crafts Movement.
Pierre Bidaud
Pierre Bidaud has been a stonemason for 30 years. After his Tour de France, he left for England in 1998, working mainly in restoration, he developed an interest in design and contemporary architecture and in 2005 began to work on stone projects.
A meeting with a structural engineer in 2009, reinforced his belief in his materials as a structural element in contemporary buildings. He embarked since 2011 on the research and development of a new method of mineral construction, mixing with steel, other high-performance resins, creating an “Augmented stone”
Pierre believes that the survival of the profession depends on re-establishing communications between professional men and women, engineers and architects. It is most important that each sector understand, question the capacities, limits, desires of each other to build more honestly and solidly. For him, dimensional stone have an even more relevant place in modern construction, with much lower carbon footprint than concrete, low water mobilisation and new off site prefabrication solutions.
For 12 years he has worked at the Stonemasonry Company with his team of dedicated stonemason and engineers, designing, developing new stone structures using techniques such as pretensioning, with discreet steel reinforcement, allowing columns and beams structures to be concrete free while still being loadbearing.
For Pierre, even more now, the stonemason, with his knowledge, his material, need to become again a protagonist, a leader, and not a simple actor in modern construction. It is important that the stonemason finds its place as designer, consultant and developer of stone solution for contemporary architecture.
From its role in the earliest architecture to its potential in a low carbon future, stone carries its story of resilience, craft and innovation. This series will open up fresh perspectives on how stone can shape tomorrow’s buildings whilst drawing from its rich history.
Across the sessions, we will explore:
History and heritage – lessons from the past that that inform and inspire present-day practice
Environmental and embodied carbon – challenges of quarrying and processing stone, looking at the role stone can play in reducing the environmental impact and supporting more sustainable construction.
Development potential – explore new opportunities for local stone and how it can be integrated into projects at all scales.
Inspiring and innovation – how designers and engineers are re-imagining its use within contemporary architecture.
Whether you’re a technologist, architect, designer, engineer or simply curious about the possibilities of this timeless material, these seminars are designed to inform, challenge and inspire.
Join us at 13:00 on the first Monday of every month and bring your curiosity and discover how stone is being reshaped for the future.
Please book your place for number whilst the link for joining the CPD is:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YzRkZWZjMTQtNjhhYS00NDE5LTgxOGUtMWEwNjU4ZTdjYTc1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2251a0a69c-0e4f-4b3d-b642-12e013198635%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228ea6f67d-91bd-45cd-bf2c-cc739219134c%22%7d
Meeting ID: 325 830 914 998 2
Passcode: 5To2Hm2Z
