GROUPWORK

We are proud to present ‘8 Bleeding Heart Yard’ by @groupwork_arch . This project made it to the Shortlist of the MARCH Awards 2025. — In this series, we share our personal favorites among the Shortlisted projects from last year’s Awards. Together, we’ll take a closer look at their design and material choices. Keep an eye out for the MARCH Awards 2026. Submissions open April 1st! 🙌 — 8 Bleeding Heart Yard is a retrofit that transforms a 1970s office and a lost Victorian streetscape into a project that meets modern standards. Photographed beautifully by Timothy Soar, the project shows how smart retrofits can advance sustainable urbanism with material choices that work both technically and responsibly. Recycled perforated aluminium panels revive the Victorian facade and blend with the urban fabric. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) forms the new floor slabs and roof structure, while glulam columns support the vertical load. Both bio-based, both decisive for a lighter, lower-carbon build. — Architect: @groupwork_arch Materials: @storaensoworld | CLT Stora Enso | Glulam columns Stora Enso | BauBuche beams @binderholzgroup | 3 Layered wooden panels @londonconstructionservices | Recycled perforated aluminium panels Photography: @timothysoarphotographer Were you part of this project? Tag yourself in the comments and we’ll include you. — Save this project to your personal library? → go to marchmaterials.com

Curated and produced by UK-based @groupwork_arch , @thestonemasonrycompany and @webbyates Engineers, The New Stone Age: Towards an Ethical Architecture champions the versatility, sustainability, and beauty of stone 🪨 as a load-bearing material in contemporary architecture. Alongside stone-and-timber installations, the exhibition traces the historical use of stone and features projects by leading international architects: — 15 Clerkenwell by GROUPWORK (@groupwork_arch ) — Sgae Central Office by Ensamble Studio (@anton_ensamble ) — Portcullis House by Hopkins Architects (@hopkinsarchitects ) — Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (@rpbw_architects ) — Delas Frères Winery by Carl Fredrik Svenstedt (@carlfredriksvenstedt ) — Stone Matters by AAU ANASTAS (@aauanastas ) — House in Colonia de Sant Pere by TEd’A arquitectes (@teda_arquitectes ) — Saint-Bodon House by Christophe Aubertin (@christophe_aubertin ) — Es Migjorn Social Housing by MIBA Architects/IBAVI (@mibaarchitects ) — 12 Rue Jean-Bart by Jean-Christophe Quinton (@jcquintonarchitecte ) — 8 Social Housing Units by Atelier Régis Roudil Arhcitectes (@atelierregisroudil ) — Mixed Building in Caluire-et-Cuire by Atelier Architecture Perraudin (@aaperraudin ) Visit The New Stone Age in the Architecture + Design Gallery at the Daniels Building, 1 Spadina, weekdays 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Exhibition on now until April 6.

The New Stone Age: Towards an Ethical Architecture, opening at @uoftdaniels next Thursday Curated and produced by UK-based architects GROUPWORK, @thestonemasonrycompany , and @webbyates , The New Stone Age: Towards an Ethical Architecture champions the versatility, sustainability, and beauty of stone as a load-bearing material in contemporary architecture. The exhibition features three large-scale stone-and-timber installations that showcase the possibilities of building with ‘augmented’ stone. Alongside these structures, the exhibition traces the historical use of stone and features projects by leading international architects. Seen together, The New Stone Age argues that stone is a viable, low-carbon alternative to conventional building materials such as reinforced concrete and steel. Le Corbusier published Towards a New Architecture over a century ago, introducing the ‘free plan’ and ‘free façade’ as the result of material innovations in reinforced concrete and steel. Today, this system has become the default building strategy worldwide, applied indiscriminately across both single and one-hundred story structures. Such blind assumptions have come under increasing scrutiny in the era of climate crisis where the construction industry drives 40% of global carbon emissions, and in the next 50 years, the world’s building stock will double. Unless we radically rethink how we build, this growth will lock in catastrophic levels of emissions. Stone offers a compelling solution. Compared to reinforced concrete and steel, stone can contain up to 95% less embodied carbon, be assembled more quickly, and more cheaply. This exhibition is a call to action - inviting students, architects, engineers, contractors, planners and manufacturers to rediscover the potential of structural stone and to help build a more sustainable future. The exhibition opening event takes place on Thursday, January 22 at 5:00 p.m. ET and will be followed by a lecture with the curators at 6:30 p.m. Special thanks also to @bambergernatursteinwerk and @piccogroup for their support in the production of the installations. #groupwork #stone #exhibition #architecture #toronto

Stone Demonstrator, London (2025) We are thrilled to share that Stone Demonstrator is now installed at the Earl’s Court Development site in London — a three-storey public prototype that demonstrates how low-carbon stone and timber can replace reinforced concrete and steel in structural frames. The construction industry accounts for 40% of the world’s carbon emissions – we must radically rethink how we build. This project presents a viable and ethical alternative to the status quo: a frame like this has around 90% less embodied carbon than if it was made with steel or reinforced concrete. All new buildings could be built with these structural principles and materials. Here, pre-tensioned, pre-assembled stone columns and beams are used alongside a self-supporting brick facade and three types of stone-timber floor decks. The Stone Demonstrator was funded by Future Observatory – the @designmuseum national research programme for the Green Transition — and designed by GROUPWORK and @webbyates in collaboration with a long list of excellent suppliers and contractors. Client: Future Observatory at @designmuseum Site partner: @earlscourtdevco Funder: The UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council Architect: GROUPWORK Engineers: @webbyates and @arupgroup Principal contractor: @ernestparkconstruction Stone structure: @thestonemasonrycompany Hybrid stone and timber floor plate: @bambergernatursteinwerk Dowel-laminated timber floor plate: IQ Wood Structural stone suppliers: @brachotfamily , Carrière de Luget, @frankenschotter , @lundhsrealstone , SigmaRoc Stone brick facade: @huttonstonecoltd , @albionstone Stone installation: Ryker Structures Facade timber supports: Rossmore Contracts Stone brick garden wall and seating: @germansbalague Brick layers: Bishops Facades Landscaping: Lyndon Osborn Lighting: @iguzzini , @atrium.lighting , @pritchardthemis Electrical installation: @switch_technologies Photography: Bas Princen #groupwork #architecture #stone #timber #lowcarbon

We are exhibiting at @marmo_mac - the world’s leading stone trade fair. Please come and say ‘hi’ at Epiphanies, Hall 10 until Friday 26 September! Our installation ‘The Return of Structural Stone’ has been produced in collaboration with Anne Hangebruch Mark Amann Architekten and @bambergernatursteinwerk . Stone is a viable, and ethical, alternative to conventional construction materials such as reinforced concrete and steel with up to 99.8% less embodied carbon. Here, we have rethought four building elements - the beam, column, wall and floor slab - to demonstrate that an entire building can be assembled using low-carbon and carbon-negative components. Thank you very much for the kind invitation to participate @raffaellogaliotto_design . Photograph credit: @raffaellogaliotto_design #marmomac #stone #augmentedstone #groupwork

What if architecture stopped hiding its structure? In London, Barretts Grove project from @groupwork_arch lets cross-laminated timber (CLT) supplied by @_egoin speak for itself. Exposed CLT replaces conventional finishes — reducing embodied carbon while keeping the construction process efficient. Here, performance and aesthetics don’t compete — they grow from the same material choice. 💚 @_egoin CLT begins with responsibly grown timber, transformed with care into prefabricated panels that fit together with precision. By reducing waste and keeping transport light, it turns construction into a process that’s faster, simpler, and gentler on the planet. 🌿 Shortlisted in the Large category of the MARCH Materials Awards 2025, Barretts Grove shows how architects and material suppliers together can push sustainable construction forward. 🗳 Discover this project and its materials on the MARCH platform. Don’t forget! Public voting for the People’s Choice Award is open until October 15. 👉 Cast your vote here: /dashboard

Mit einer Gesprächsrunde zum Thema verantwortungsvolles Bauen geht unsere Ausstellung "Groupwork – Alice’s Tabula Rasa" zu Ende. Vielen Dank an alle, die dabei waren – und ein besonderer Dank an unsere Diskutanten für ihre spannenden Beiträge: Prof. Mark Ammann (Anne Hangebruch Mark Ammann Architekten) Florian Meier (knippershelbig) Christopher Aust (Bamberger Natursteinwerke) Em. Prof. Wolfgang Willkomm (HCU Hamburg) — Die nächste Ausstellung eröffnet am 4. September – wir freuen uns auf euch! — Die diesjährigen Ausstellungen werden von @dallmer_official , @fiandre_surfaces , @laufen_germany und @prolicht.at unterstützt. — auau - Raum für Architektur Brunnenhofstraße 2, 22767 Hamburg www.auau.eu

GROUPWORK Alice’s Tabula Rasa Einzelausstellung Zusammen mit @bambergernatursteinwerk . 05. Juni – 03. Juli 2025 Vernissage 05. Juni 2025, 19 Uhr Finissage 03. Juli 2025, 19 Uhr Öffnungszeiten Dienstag & Donnerstag 16 – 19 Uhr 📍 Brunnenhofstraße 2 22767 Hamburg Die diesjährigen Ausstellungen werden von @dallmer_official , @fiandre_surfaces , @laufen_germany und @prolicht.at unterstützt. Fotos: @joshuadeli_

Letzte Woche haben wir die Vernissage der Ausstellung "Alice’s Tabula Rasa" gefeiert! Im Rahmen unseres Jahresthemas Patina präsentiert die Ausstellung Arbeiten des Londoner Architekturbüros @groupwork_arch , die sich mit dem bewussten Umgang mit Alter, Materialität und Geschichte beschäftigen. Ihre Architektur zeigt: Altern ist kein Mangel, sondern Qualität – sichtbar gemacht durch rohe Oberflächen, traditionellem Naturstein und konstruktive Ehrlichkeit. Bei der Vernissage waren u.a. Nerissa Yeung, Dominic Kacinskas , Sam Llewellyn Smith, Aaron Naish von GROUPWORK und Christopher Aust vom @bambergernatursteinwerk zu Gast. Vielen Dank an alle, die dabei waren! Wir freuen uns auf die nächste Finissage mit spannender Diskussionsrunde am 3. Juli ab 19 Uhr. Die diesjährigen Ausstellungen werden unterstützt von @dallmer_official , @fiandre_surfaces , @laufen_germany und @prolicht.at ---- auau – Raum für Architektur Brunnenhofstraße 2 22767 Hamburg Öffnungszeiten Dienstag / Donnerstag 16 - 19 Uhr

Topping out! 317 Finchley Road, London The last of the 400+ load-bearing stone columns and beams has been eased into place at 317 Finchley Road, ten storeys above street level and twelve above the adjacent rail station. Comprising 22 apartments and a supermarket, this scheme represents a real first for low-carbon mid-rise buildings - the building has around 80% less embodied carbon than a steel frame clad in stone, and 55% less embodied carbon than a concrete structure clad in stone. Engineers: @webbyates Contractors: @ernestparkconstruction Project manager: Pantelli @lundhsrealstone @ateliers_romeo #groupwork #architecture #london #stone

Tirana Contemporary City, Albania (2025) GROUPWORK was selected as one of six international practices to enter Tirana Contemporary City, a competition to masterplan a new district in Albania’s capital. Our proposal is drawn from the surrounding streets, extending desire lines and flexing in parts to provide generous public spaces: a central avenue, an expansive amphitheatre carved from the ground plane and a host of nooks and crannies wherein to pause, sit, and perhaps chat with a fellow neighbour or visitor. From public spaces, ensconced by Plane and Umbrella trees, to semi-public roof terraces and private winter gardens, green spaces have been carefully integrated with the stone and timber architecture. The project is carbon-negative, with buildings constructed using cross-laminated timber floors supported by a load-bearing stone exoskeleton. In places, the structure is picked out in gold, glinting in the ever evolving Tirana skyline. Competition organisers: @akpt_shqiperia2030 Structural and M&E engineer: @webbyates Landscape consultant: @mcgregorcoxall #groupwork #architecture #masterplan #albania #stone

168 Upper Street, London (2017) 168 Upper Street rebuilds the missing piece of a 19th century parade that was bombed in WWII. The neoclassical facade, digitally modelled from its surviving twin and cast from 300 CNC-cut polystyrene moulds, is both structure and surface. ‘Day pour’ joints are visible on the exterior, while the interior reveals cast impressions of historic details like cornices, dado rails, and anaglypta wallpaper. Cross-laminated timber floors are fixed with steel brackets cast into the concrete shell, with openings aligned to the internal layout and function. 168 Upper Street was awarded both a RIBA London Award and a RIBA National Award in 2019. Structural engineer: @webbyates Contractor: @talinabuilds M&E consultant: Syntegra Group Fire engineer: Optimise Specialist metalwork: Entuitive Photographs: @timothysoarphotographer #groupwork #architecture #london #CLT #concrete