Architectural Association Visiting School ‘Working Stone: Komatsu’ Japan

Natural stone is a fundamental, low-carbon building material with great potential for the circular economy in construction, especially when quarried and reused locally. However, architecture students rarely get hands-on experience with it. Unlike timber, steel, and concrete, stone is harder to source, identify, and work with in university workshops, limiting students’ understanding to theoretical and cosmetic knowledge. While 20th-century industrialization standardised materials like concrete and steel, today’s climate crisis demands we take a ‘bioregional’ approach, embracing locally abundant materials. This involves re-learning how to utilise local materials and vernacular craft processes, while borrowing best practice from around the globe. Working Stone: Komatsu aimed to address these issues by offering architecture students practical experience in designing and working with Komatsu stone- the igneous rock specific to Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture.

Working Stone: Komatsu focused on a live project brief, responding to the local town council’s interest in improving its public spaces. The brief asks students to design and create stone landscape elements that encourage play and support rest within a local park. Over nine intensive days, students traced the stone’s geological origins, following the process from quarrying raw blocks to splitting, cutting, and polishing finished stone. They received hands-on training with traditional and modern masonry tools, guided by skilled stonemasons. Research was conducted in the town and Cape Manazuru, the source of much of the stone used for Tokyo’s Edo palace walls. Design development took place at the Komatsu Community Centre, while stone cutting and finishing was done at Takebayashi Stonemasonry Ltd’s workshops.

The Architectural Association Visiting School (AAVS) programme operates independently of the AA’s degree programme. Encompassing myriad forms and agendas, AAVS courses are built around agenda-driven project briefs that are pursued and shaped by participants working intensively in small groups, and are led by AA tutors and other international experts.