Designed by Groupwork, with Webb Yates as structural and MEP engineers, the project is being built as a complete structural stone skeleton made of Larvikite from Lundhs.

The development comprises three buildings, with the tallest reaching ten storeys. Instead of hiding the frame behind layers of cladding, Finchley Road puts the structure on the outside, a stone exoskeleton that defines both the building’s engineering and its architectural identity.

When the frame becomes the façade

In most contemporary construction, you build a frame, then wrap it. Finchley Road flips that logic: the frame is also the façade, designed to eliminate redundancies in the construction process and reduce material waste.

That ambition is matched by the project’s scale. The structural system of over 400 Larvikite beams and columns, precision-engineered and delivered as repeatable elements rather than “cladding stone.” In total, 494 pieces amounting to 407 m³ of stone were produced over nine months.

Why Larvikite — and why Lundhs

Finchley Road was originally specified in Italian basalt, but was later switched to Larvikite from Lundhs, chosen for its exceptional compressive strength (reported as over three times that of concrete) and its suitability for a dense, load-bearing structural frame.

Ben Ayling, Business Developer in Lundhs captures the wider rationale:

“Concrete has become the default for structural applications, but in many cases natural stone would not only perform better, it would also carry a fraction of the embodied carbon.”

As an igneous stone, Larvikite combines durability with the consistency needed for engineered, repeatable structural components, a material that can perform at building scale when design tolerances, fabrication and logistics are aligned.

To emphasize the low carbon aspect of the project, the stones were shipped via a port close to the quarry in Larvik, Norway.

From quarry to site: what it takes to deliver structural stone

For Lundhs, Finchley Road has been a challenging, end-to-end project, from quarry extraction to fabrication, drilling for installation, splicing, finishing treatments, and tightly coordinated logistics into a constrained London site.

Henrik Paulsen, Sales Executive in Lundhs, who led the project from the Lundhs side, describes the reality behind the ambition:

“Leading Lundhs’ involvement in 317 Finchley Road was a real challenge, and I’m proud of what our team delivered. Over nine months, we had to coordinate and optimize a long chain of moving parts, from raw block extraction in the quarry to fabrication, drilling for installation and splicing, selective scabbling, and logistics all the way from Larvik to the UK.”

Transport was one of the toughest parts. With very limited storage space on site, deliveries had to be timed precisely to match installation pace — a point echoed in reporting from Stone Specialist, which notes that the Larvikite was shipped from Norway via Tilbury and Immingham for onward transport, and that sequencing and coordination were essential on site.

For Lundhs, this project has also been a learning curve: hands-on experience of what it takes to deliver natural stone as load-bearing structural elements — knowledge that will strengthen future opportunities.

Carbon impact — as reported by the design team

The project’s environmental narrative is central, and it’s important to keep the numbers correctly attributed. Groupwork calculates an embodied carbon saving of 80% compared to steel with stone cladding, and 55% compared to reinforced concrete structures.

This is also why Finchley Road has become a reference point in industry conversations about structural stone. Webb Yates’ Footprint+ recap describes it as the world’s first 10-storey, fully loadbearing stone building, and notes discussions spanning fire performance, embodied carbon and supply chains.

Engineering stone like a modern structure

A building like this relies on engineering detail. Stone Specialist describes the stone frame as a sway frame with fixed connections between beams and columns. To validate the approach, Webb Yates built a full-scale connection mock-up, tested at 1.5× design loads.

One of the key structural principles is to keep the stone working where it performs best. As Webb Yates’ Eleonora Regni explains (via Stone Specialist), the frame was designed so vertical loads are carried by the columns, allowing beams to act primarily in tension to provide lateral stability.

Architextures adds that the project demanded bespoke solutions (including inclined columns) and that connection and buildability decisions were developed through conversations across the stone supply chain, with a clear aim to reduce drilling where possible because it adds time and cost.

A practical wellbeing angle: silica-free natural stone

Beyond performance, Lundhs also highlights a practical wellbeing factor: Larvikite contains no silica minerals, consists mainly of feldspar minerals, and is therefore classified as a silica-free natural stone.

A new kind of “stone story”

For a long time, stone in contemporary architecture has been treated as a thin, applied layer. Finchley Road is the opposite: stone as structure, stone as the visible logic of the building. For Lundhs, it’s a clear demonstration of what Larvikite can be when it’s engineered, coordinated and installed as a true building system — not just a finish.

• Architect: Groupwork
• Structural & MEP engineers: Webb Yates Engineers
• Contractor / management contracting: Ernest Park
• Project managers: Pantelli
• Structural stone: Lundhs Blue® Larvikite from Lundhs
• Cutting and splitting: Larvikittblokka
• Drilling and splicing: Demotec

CREDITS

Norwood, V. (2025) Finchley Road by Groupwork: advancing the new Stone Age. Architextures, 9 October.
Stone Specialist (2025) Case Study: WIP at Finchley Road. 20 November.
Webb Yates Engineers (2025) A look back at Footprint+. 23 May.