New Construction “Pavilion of Stone”

Since 2024, an extraordinary structure has stood on the south campus of TU Dortmund University: a pavilion made of 33 solid natural stone elements of Mainsandstein, weiß-grau, without the use of concrete.

As early as 2023, students in the ‘Stone Pavilion’ design and construction seminar offered by the junior professorship for Solid Building Structures, led by Jun. Prof. Arch. Anne Hangebruch, in cooperation with the Chair of Structural Design (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hartz) and us, had already investigated the potential of natural stone as a load-bearing element, not just a cladding element, in contemporary architecture.

The design model by Ieva Saudargaite was first realised in Mainsandstein, weiß-grau on a scale of 1:5, before being constructed in its original size on campus in 2024.

The 33 Mainsandstein, weiß-grau blocks weigh between 80 kilograms and 1.4 tonnes. They were pre-milled using robots and then finished by hand with precision craftsmanship. We chose the stone cut so that rainwater cannot penetrate the horizontal joints. A custom-made keystone joins all the components together to form a stable, harmonious unit. Epprechtstein granite was used for the foundation stones – another reason why the project could be realised entirely without concrete.