The corner conundrum

We wanted to write this blog as a reference for Architects and designers who are keen to use flint but reluctant to pair it with traditional materials such as brick and stone.

In contemporary designs moving away from these classic material combinations can be one way of setting the use of both knapped and unknapped flint within a modern context.

And so we come to the conundrum ' what do we do on the corners?'

Flint can be used to form quoins and corner details in a number of ways. The use of flint on the corners projects the materials dominance within the design, and when pairing flint with timber cladding or glass can keep a sleek minimal look.

The big reveal

There is a cost associated with choosing flint corners, it's slow considered work: knapping, flint selection and laying add time and complexity to a project. One way of reducing this is to introduce a simple sheet material such as powdered aluminium to window and door reveals. This is an unobtrusive design detail that reduces the required linear meters of flint corners on a project and keeps costs down.

From painstakingly knapped corner squares, to carefully selected gnarled field flint flint corners please see the photographs below for inspiration. We found a neolithic flint hand axe.

It has been authenticated and dates back to around 4000 BC a time when the entire population were 'flint workers' Appropriate perhaps that a member of the flint wall company found this relic of a time in which flint was king.