Material Study

Most of Dublin lies on a bed of calp limestone. Prior to 1720, calp was the main stone building material used in Dublin, and was quarried locally in the suburbs of Palmerstown, Kimmage, Rathgar and Donnybrook (where a Dublin Bus depot exists today). 

One of the reasons it stopped being used in building walls was its moisture content and its tendency to leach mud.

Calp is a dark, argillaceous, fine- grained carboniferous limestone. It is grey, muddy and brownish grey or bluish grey normally but turns almost black when wet, during rain, for example. 

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We need to use calp structurally again, as it is a limestone that has proven to be capable structurally, and because we have such an abundance of it. But we cannot deny the issues inherent in it, as follows:
- It is a softer and more brittle limestone compared to many others, like blue limestone
- It is ‘impure’ i.e. it is clay-rich and tends to leach it 
- It is not available as blocks for easy building at this time. 

But the low embodied energy in its production, durability, recyclability and thermal mass means it is the best building material in Ireland, and I hope this project can highlight its properties and abundance so that it it is quarried extensively once more. 

My proposed solution takes inspiration in first part from a project by H Arquitectes, in which they made new blocks of standard sizes out of lime concrete and sandstone rubble, and in my case I can use the reclaimed calp limestone instead of the sandstone.