“The Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’ ‘I tell you,’ He replied, ‘if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'”
Luke 19.39-40
This project is a culmination of one year of research and six months of design work based around Purbeck Stone.
Endeavoring to understand this material, beginning with a mysteriously abandoned cliff quarry at Worth Matravers, Dorset, in the south of England. Passing through the site, echoes of a powerful drama have left their sculpting marks in the ruins, caves, and quarried cliff faces looking out toward the sea. At Winspit Cliff Quarry, the stage for a drama is still set – but the actors have long gone.
All in all, “135 Million Years: a Geological Drama” is a narrative told in six different acts, illustrated, and drafted by hand, that uncovers the rocks of Purbeck, the stones of Man, and the everlasting dialogue between the two.
Evidence suggests that stone has been mined and quarried in Purbeck since at least times of the Roman occupation of Latin Britannia. Winspit Quarry is one of the many abandoned cliff quarries that were operational along Purbeck’s southern coast. As time has passed however, only six active quarries remain.
For centuries, quarrying operations on the site have seen the upper cliff face slowly move from the coastline as it was extracted. It is interesting to note that in the survey of the Worth Estate from 1772, no quarry is shown at the West Winspit. It is only by 1920 where an updated survey would record the alterations of the landscape due to quarrying over the previous two centuries. By the 1950’s, Winspit Quarry was completely abandoned and left in the state it is found today.
The important revelation here is that a site long abandoned was still very much alive. Man once made the quarry his lifeblood and his spirit; Even without the technology of today, he knew the rock-the strata. The beds, the veins, the caps, the ledges, and all their subtle differences;
Despite all this, that source would be rejected, but now dawn again.
Excerpts and supporting film were taken from “135 Million Years A Geological Drama”, by Timothy Christian Murphy with assistance from fellow graduate and brother in arms Adrian Finn, nominated by the Arts University Bournemouth for the 2022 RIBA Silver Medal.
As a mason, stonework is so intricately distinct in masonry. Most masonry is somewhat mechanical and methodical but stonework requires no less an artisans hand. This post detached my everyday routine and swept it where I honestly seldom regard. The immense amount of work that goes into quarrying is incredible. A task seemingly neanderthal at best. But to hear the quarryman’s characterization of an admissible stone makes me realize where the artistry begins. I’ll have a newfound reverence as I craft stone into becoming architecture. Thank you for a glimpse into a foundation of architecture.
Bel article, je l’ai partagé avec mes amis.