Heralding the New Stone Age Part 2 Project 2024 Laura Sutherland Robert Gordon University | UK Throughout history, stone has widely been used to construct some of the most beautiful and useful spaces across the world. Today, however, a paradoxical situation exists where our country has a vast stone-built heritage, but the building stone industry that produced it, has all but disappeared. And yet, a vast wealth of material remains beneath our feet.There is now growing awareness of the benefits of stone construction that include reducing embodied carbon emission and integrating circular economy principles.A new stone structure is created to maximise the opportunity in compression only stone construction- which minimises material use and maximises material strength.The stone structure is applied within a rural community development in Finstown, Orkney which hosts both residential and commercial building typologies. The development is crucial in responding to a lack of housing provision across the island and acts in part of a wider self-sustaining masterplan. Runrig walls are employed within the landscape to root the development in its rural farming heritage.An external insulation system envelopes the structure to further the low carbon ambition- as the thermal mass of the structures begins to passively regulate the heating and cooling of each construction. Laura Sutherland Tutor(s) David Vila Domini