Graveyard of Albion Stone

The Graveyard of Albion Stone investigates the environmental, social and political discussion regarding the stone industry. Looking at the specific context of Portland stone, the project proposes the introduction of a Labour Museum within Dorset’s overworked landscape.

The thesis looks at the development of the construction of architecture through the lens of forced, skilled and technological labour, proposing a Labour Museum to hold these narratives in the Isle of Portland, Dorset. Through the use of digital scanning, surveyed stones recorded a catalogue of waste that can be reused as building or furniture elements. The waste is pre-stressed into bricks in relationship with plywood modules creating component systems using natural materials. The vision of the labour museum is underpinned by specific themes like extraction, construction, technology, colonialism and materials. Stone holds a history and memory that opens up a narrative of issues today such as ethical sourcing, modern slavery and the environmental and technical consequences of the industry. The museum contents challenge the construction of culture connected to stone displaying its complexity of time, technique and labour. Through a series of interactions, the museum is evolving through projects. The building facilitates a framework to start a dialogue and archive topics that are not discussed sufficiently. It culminates in lenses of moments to thematise a broader topic of labour and practices that facilitate social learning to be experienced, debated and materialised. The content provides a lens into a particular context it is situated but also connects to a subject much larger than its circumstances or the building itself.