Natural Stone as a Bioregional Resource

Morphologies of Stone investigates how bioregionally sourced natural stone can become the basis for a climate-resilient housing project in Stuttgart. The thesis builds on a previous territorial study of natural stone resources in Baden-Württemberg, in which geological mapping, quarry visits, material research and structural prototypes were used to develop a method for low-carbon stone construction. The project transfers this research into a specific urban case study. Starting from the Waldenbuch quarry, 18 kilometres from Stuttgart, the thesis examines Stubensandstone not as a finished product, but as part of a larger material system. The quarry defines raw block dimensions, cutting logic, overburden, forest context and emerging habitats. From this, three local material streams are developed: sandstone as load-bearing structure, timber as spanning element, and clay-rich overburden as climatic and acoustic mass.

Applied to an infill site in Stuttgart-Süd, the material strategy becomes a residential building for inner-city densification. The project responds to Stuttgart’s housing pressure, summer heat and specific demographic conditions, with a focus on compact apartments for single-parent households. In-between courtyards organise the building as shared climatic and social spaces, supporting care, supervision, play, retreat and passive cooling.

Rather than treating material as a final layer added to a design, the project allows quarry logic, structural constraints and material properties to shape the architecture itself. Stone becomes structure, thermal mass, service layer and spatial threshold. The thesis therefore proposes housing as a bioregional system, where geology, extraction, construction, climate adaptation and everyday domestic life are understood as part of one architectural logic.