Stonemasonry

Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, monuments, artifacts, fortifications, roads, bridges, and entire cities were built of stone.

Famous works of stonemasonry include Göbekli Tepe, the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Cusco's Incan Wall, Taqwesan, Easter Island's statues, Angkor Wat, Borobudur, Tihuanaco, Tenochtitlan, Persepolis, the Parthenon, Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, the Mesoamerican pyramids, Chartres Cathedral, and the Stari Most.

While stone was important traditionally, it fell out of use in the modern era, in favor of brick and steel-reinforced concrete.

In the modern era, stone has been largely relegated to being a cosmetic element of buildings, often used as decorative cladding on steel-reinforced concrete.

This is despite its wide historical use in large compressive structures: 50-m bridges and colosseums in Roman times, ~65-m tall cathedrals since the middle ages, and 12-story apartment buildings built in the 1690s.

Massive precut stone construction was originally developed by Fernand Pouillon in the postwar period.

During the post-war period, his innovative approach to stone construction led to the development of numerous noteworthy projects, with a particular focus on housing.

Throughout his long career, Pouillon played a crucial role in the development and popularization of massive precut stone construction techniques.

The tension elements can be connected to the outside of the stone, but more typically uses tendons threaded internally through a duct formed from aligned drilled holes.

This method of construction is widely used for concrete structures, but the advantages of using similar techniques with stone are only just being realised".

[29] However, it has relatively weak flexural strength (compared to steel or wood), so in isolation cannot be safely used in wide spans under tension.

The tensioning process imparts a compressive force to the stone, which improves its capacity to resist tensile stresses that could otherwise cause cracking or failure.

Stone is "natural precast concrete", so only needs to be cut (and strength tested) and post-tensioned prior to use in construction.

During the time of the Neolithic Revolution and domestication of non-human animals, people learned how to use fire to create quicklime, plasters, and mortars.

People of the Indus Valley Civilization, such as at Dholavira made entire cities characterized by stone architecture.

Apprentices were indentured to their masters as the price for their training, journeymen were qualified craftsmen who were paid by the day, and master masons were considered freemen who could travel as they wished to work on the projects of the patrons and could operate as self-employed craftsmen and train apprentices.

The centre stage for the Renaissance would prove to be Italy, where Italian city-states such as Florence erected great structures, including the Florence Cathedral, the Fountain of Neptune, and the Laurentian Library, which was planned and built by Michelangelo Buonarroti, a famous sculptor of the Renaissance.

Prior to the first half of the century, most heavy work was executed by draft animals or human muscle power.

Stonemasons use a wide variety of tools to handle and shape stone blocks (ashlar) and slabs into finished articles.

In some areas, colleges offer courses which teach not only the manual skills but also related fields such as drafting and blueprint reading or construction conservation.

Those wishing to become stonemasons should have little problem working at heights, possess reasonable hand-eye coordination, be moderately physically fit, and have basic mathematical ability.

Many of the world's most famous buildings have been built of sedimentary stone, from Durham Cathedral to St Peter's in Rome.