Iano and Allen’s section on Stone Masonry, with some overlap on bricks refer back to the basic idea of materiality for building i.e. some Vitruvian basis on Utilitatis and Firmitatis.

That being said,  building material has to exhibit aesthetic and functional aspects. Building fundamentals  on stone masonry cover the general mechanics of material , porosity, tensile/compressive attributes without going into the quantitative aspects. Such an example would be stone cladding versus stone masonry whereby the binder is either mechanical(metal clips)  or chemical (mortar). This example elucidates an important point in material treatment. It is so because  it differentiates mode of adhesion if it can be said.  With that in mind the chapter goes on to discuss and furthers the stone/masonry section with reference to ASTM standards which is important for everyone involved in the building industry.

With Vitruvian aspects, it follows how grain and external aspect affect the choices an architect has to be aware of. With this in mind the chapter goes to close on important key terms.