BAI held in Lugo the workshop “Digital Crafts. Stone Construction,” an intensive program developed from April 13 to 17, 2026, at the quarry, masonry, architecture, and carpentry facilities of Paudepedra, within the Environment–Construction–History area of its training program. The workshop, fully funded and aimed at architecture and engineering students, young graduates, and vocational training students in construction-related fields, was conceived as an immersive technical and material experience in one of the most distinctive productive environments in Europe.

The workshop was based on a central idea: that no technique is neutral, and that contemporary tools of digital design and robotic fabrication only gain true meaning when placed in dialogue with material intelligence, construction history, and manual craft. From this premise, the activity took place at Paudepedra, a company with over three decades of experience in stone construction, working both on heritage interventions and complex contemporary projects.

The main objective of the workshop was to familiarize participants with the conceptual frameworks and manual skills that enable the integration of contemporary digital design and robotic fabrication techniques with traditional methods of form analysis and handcraft. Throughout the week, students developed a stone compression prototype element—a skewed arch—inspired by the traditional architecture of Lugo’s historic center and defined through digital modeling, templates, machining, fitting, and final on-site assembly.

The program combined workflow fundamentals, contextual visits, application of tradition and digital design to the case study, intensive fabrication and stone masonry workshops, and a final session of presentations and critical reflection. The teaching team was composed of Enrique Rojo, Octavio Vázquez, and María Novo, with the participation of Luis Gil Pita at different stages of the workshop and its final review.

The week began on Monday with an introduction by Patricia Minguito, Academic Coordinator of BAI, a tour of the workshop facilities, and a first theoretical and practical approach to digital fabrication workflows. On Tuesday, after a visit to Lugo’s historic center, work began on the stone arch prototype, addressing issues of safety, adaptation, design, and stone cutting. Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to intensive development through design, machining, fabrication, stone carving, finishing, and assembly. Finally, Friday concluded with student presentations and a shared critical reflection with the teaching team and invited guests.

With this workshop, BAI continues to strengthen a training line that understands innovation not as a replacement of construction knowledge, but as a critical expansion of its possibilities. In Lugo, this philosophy became tangible in a laboratory where software, advanced machinery, stone, craftsmanship, and architectural design coexisted, demonstrating how contemporary architecture can find in digital crafts a fertile path to rethink construction through technical precision, material memory, and applied experimentation.