Led by the duo behind architecture studio AAU Anastas, ‘Qamt’ is the latest piece from the series Stone Matters investigating the use of stone in construction.

A part of the Palestinian firm’s ongoing research into the use of stone in architecture, ‘Qamt’ is a circular lintel bench that serves as a functional element as well as an illustrative architectural element.

Arising from the systematic misuse of clad stone in Palestine, an abundant material that was used in the past for structural purposes, ‘Stone Matters’ is an experimentation based research project that explores the potential of stone in structural stone when placed in the language of contemporary architecture, combined with traditional craftsmanship and construction techniques of the present to find novel ways of expressing the qualities of architectures fundamental elements.

Deriving from the architecture of Palestine and combining various architectural elements brought on by various civilizations, the research project looks to blur the lines between regional and global architecture, born through a series of real-scale installations, academic articles, and more.

Qamt was inspired by stereotomy (the art and science of cutting three-dimensional solids into particular shapes) found in Jerusalem and is a part of the Analogy collection that addresses the reoccurrence of archetypal forms of geometry and spatial configurations in Jerusalem through time. The collection investigates the local and global exchange of techniques, tracing unseen analogies between architectural forms across borders. The circular lintel bench has now been acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Through their experimentation with local stone, AAU Anastas has created a series of real scale installations, one of which was exhibited during Dubai Design Week in 2017 as a part of the Palestinian pavilion; ‘Mass Imperfections,” continued the experimentation with local stone, aimed to reintroduce human error as a fundamental element of creativity and presenting the structure as a constellation of glitches.