Meditations on Montréal Stone

This thesis is a meditation on the potential of stone. Meditating means looking beyond the so-called practical use of stone to explore its ephemeral, cultural and other properties. Exploring the history and possibility of Montréal stone and its potential to act as an architectural and programmatic agent beyond conventional contemporary properties of the material. The Phi Contemporary and the island of Tiohti:áke itself are used to test this project and focus on a local understanding. Through site analysis and research at a geological scale, we open up to more significant landscapes and larger frames of time, a way of seeing beyond the parameters of an architectural brief. The thesis brings forward three ways of looking at stone: first, by analyzing what is forgotten; second, by accumulating and processing lithic data; and finally, by proposing experiential methods to engage with the material.