Preston Tower: material and tectonics ESALA lecture by Charlie Porter
In early February, Charlie Porter presented to ESALA 4th-year students from the Architecture Design: Tectonics course, led by Rachael Hallett Scott. As part of their studies, students have been hearing from practitioners about how material knowledge is embedded into architectural practice. GRAS’s contribution focused on stone—its complexities, its applications, and how these were explored in our work at Preston Tower.
The knowledge applied at Preston Tower was not singular but collective—shaped by archaeological readings, technical analysis, traditional construction methods, and the expertise of those who contributed to its conservation. Each layer of understanding was refined through practice—through doing, sampling, testing, and iterating—until the right balance was found for the specific context of Prestonpans.
Perhaps the greatest lesson from this project is that material knowledge is never static. Whether a 4th-year student or 25 years into practice, our understanding of materials is always evolving. No two sites are ever truly the same, and even the most familiar materials behave differently depending on their context. Our role is to remain responsive, learning from others, refining through experience, and allowing knowledge to grow through making.