The Stone & Surfaces Show opens tomorrow, 12th May, at ExCeL London, marking a significant new chapter for what has been the UK’s leading gathering for stone and surface design professionals for more than 27 years.

Formerly known as The Stone Show & Hard Surfaces, the event returns from 12–14th May as a broader, reimagined platform celebrating innovation, craftsmanship and the future of material design across the built environment.

Together, exhibitions, installations and discussions aim to demonstrate how natural stone and advanced surfaces are evolving within a rapidly changing construction landscape.

This year’s relaunch introduces three dedicated zones — Natural Stone, Technology, and Surfaces — bringing architects, designers, fabricators, suppliers and specifiers together for three days of demonstrations, talks and exhibitions. Exhibitors are set to include Athena Stonecare, Hutton Stone Co, Stone Automation, Szerelmey  and Arcturus Stones among many, many more!

Athena Stonecare

As the UK’s only trade exhibition with a dedicated natural stone section, the 2026 programme significantly expands its educational offer across the Main Stage, Architects’ Theatre and Surfaces Cinema.

Finchley Road

Architect Amin Taha of Groupwork opens the Main Stage programme with a keynote titled Let’s Get Stoned. His address will explain how stone and timber hybrid structures create carbon-negative buildings, which can allow the construction sector to reduce the 40% contribution to global carbon emissions that it currently produces, and can instead become a carbon-sequestration industry.

Stone Demonstrator

Further sessions moderated by television architect George Clarke will examine the growing interest in load-bearing stone construction, including discussion of the Stone Demonstrator project at Earls Court. Speakers include Justin McGuirk of the Design Museum’s Future Observatory, Marcus Paine of Hutton Stone, engineer Eleonora Regni of Webb Yates Engineers and Pierre Bidaud of The Stonemasonry Company.

Trehus

There will be case studies galore, with presentations on projects including Trehus in Maidenhead — a timber-framed office building clad in natural stone targeting a 40% embodied carbon reduction — and Amin Taha will also discuss Groupwork’s Finchley Road development alongside Webb Yates and stone supplier Lundhs.

Studio Folk

Architect-led sessions from Fieldwork Architects, Studio Folk and Hawkins\Brown shall explore stone detailing, landscape integration and contemporary applications of traditional materials. Across the wider programme, five major industry trends underpin discussions at the show: load-bearing stone construction, biophilic materials, ethical supply chains, circularity and the growing role of artificial intelligence.

Chris Hopkinson

A major addition for this year's event is the launch of the Surfaces Cinema, introducing film, photography and live presentations into the exhibition environment. The new space is ready to screen documentary films, architectural photography and material-focused storytelling alongside talks by designers and architects. The cinema is part of a wider effort to “festivalise” the show, providing a more relaxed setting alongside the technical seminar programme — complete with free popcorn.

Among the highlights are screenings from ARCHITEXTURES’ Materials in Motion series, offering behind-the-scenes access to manufacturers including Mirrl, Tiny Temple and No Rules Wallpaper. ARCHITEXTURES founder Ryan Canning will also present in the Architects’ Theatre on the role of digital material libraries in specification workflows.

ANTI-RUIN

The cinema will additionally screen a film about ANTI-RUIN, an experimental project by architect Levent Ozruh exploring how stone dust and demolition waste can be transformed into new architectural structures using large-scale 3D printing. The cinema will also feature work by leading interior photographers Chris Hopkinson, Ivan Jones and Andy Stagg, alongside films curated by award-winning filmmaker Edward Bishop examining sustainability, construction and model-making craft.

With doors opening tomorrow at ExCeL London, the 2026 edition promises three days of discovery for an industry navigating sustainability, technology and the future of building materials. Organised by Media 10, the show forms part of the Built Environment “Super Event”, co-located alongside UK Construction Week London and FutureBuild.

Registration remains free via the Stone & Surfaces Show website.