The Stones of Dunmore

Scotland's former prowess in the production of materials, from stone to steel, has been decimated in recent decades by the 'convenience' of lower quality imports. This misguided practice has laid to waste countless local industries, which has weakened in equal measure the authenticity and longevity of our built environment, along with our ability to fix it. This is both socially and environmentally unsustainable and cannot carry on. The Thesis must consider a future where local material is critical, whether virgin or reclaimed, and our architecture can reflect the pride of people and place.

The Thesis tells the story of the ruinous Dunmore Park Estate in Stirlingshire. Once the grand residence of a higher class, the site is now long forgotten by all but the forest which shrouds it's delicate stone remains. These remains, the 'Stones', immortalise a crucial history and will soon become the foundations of a pioneering material revolution in Scotland. The story unfolds in stages, speculating how a neglected site can be delicately transformed into a sustainable productive landscape: 1. The first stage unfolds at the Pineapple, an iconic walled garden which forms the new foundation for Scottish stonemasonry. This complex grows from a guild of master stonemasons helping to mend the ruins on site to an academy which teaches the craft, producing sculptures to be displayed on a walking route around the park. 2. A resource salvage railway loop is then sewn between dismantled lines and productive industries in the wider area to feed a circular flow of waste materials into Dunmore Reclaim Laboratory, the old estate stables. Here reclaimed materials are collected, processed, and tested to provide a self-sustaining local resource bank for construction across the country. 3. Finally, the material is incorporated into the imposing ruin of Dunmore Park House, which becomes a Retrofit Emporium. A place for selling the new-found art of reclaim and retrofit, this hollow stone vessel is clad in salvaged materials which can be disassembled and sold to visitors. The house is dynamic, it's interior constantly changing, physically documenting the new circular age whilst framing fragments of history in aged stonework. This story merely sows the seeds for a larger scale movement. New Centralities akin to Dunmore can unify a more sustainable Scotland and promise a better future.