Competitive Edge

Precarity in architectural labor—for commissions, for position in the firm—drives a race to the bottom. Designers push to prove a certain nimbleness and savvy with a client’s budget. Thus, the profession steers towards cheaper, faster, and more versatile architectural materials. In the case of engineered stone, the consequences are fatal.
Engineered stone—crushed stone bound by resin, also known as quartz countertop, quartz surfacing, quartz surface, or quartz agglomerate—typically contains greater than 90% crystalline silica content compared to 30% in granite and less than 10% in marble. ¹ Dry cutting engineered stone, a practice common to small stone fabrication shops with non-union labor, subjects workers to extreme silica exposure. Repeated extreme exposure leads to silicosis, an incurable lung disease now on the rise among 20- to 30-year-old countertop fabricators. ²
Ideally, we would live in a world with rigorous safety procedures and enforcement, but that is far from reality. Even in large shops with waterjets, respirators, and advanced ventilation systems, maintaining silica levels below OSHA-permissible limits of 50 μg/m3 ³requires a regulatory and enforcement framework beyond what currently exists at either the state or federal level. For example, in California, doctors identified a cluster of 52 silicosis cases among countertop workers between 2019 and 2023. Among those, 26 underwent lung transplants and 14 died. ¹ According to the 2025 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine study led by Amy Heinzerling, only several hundred of the more than 10,000 U.S employers in the industry have been inspected by OSHA. Of those who have, most have not been compliant with existing silica regulations.
Australia acts as an instructive example of the limits of regulation. In 2015, Australia rolled out increased regulations and monitoring, followed by educational campaigns and a certification program. The government then assembled a national task force to review the efficacy of these initiatives and found that hazardous silica exposure persisted despite the new regulatory policies. They decided to ban the use of engineered stone as of July 2024.^4,5
As students, we investigate architectural materials for tactility, tectonic expression, process of assembly, building life cycle, ecology, and end user well-being. One seldom dreams of filling their architectural scheme with resin and silica, yet in practice, factors like budgets and schedules counterbalance the architect’s material intent. Engineered stone entered the market around 2000. From 2010 to 2018, U.S. quartz surface imports increased approximately 800%. ⁶

1 Heinzerling A, Harrison R, Flattery J, Fazio JC, Gandhi S, Cummings KJ. “Deadly Countertops: An Urgent Need to Eliminate Silicosis among Engineered Stone Workers.” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, vol. 211, April 2025: 557–559, https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202410-2008VP
2 Emily Alpert Reyes and Cindy Carcamo, “California workers who cut countertops are dying of an incurable disease,” LA Times, September 24, 2023
3,4 Heinzerling A, et al., “Deadly Countertops”
5 Dianna Budds, “Rock Dust Menace,” The Architect’s Newspaper, May 15, 2024, https://www.archpaper.com/2024/05/safe-material-engineered-stone-new-regulations-effects-health/
6Rose C, Heinzerling A, Patel K, et al. Severe Silicosis in Engineered Stone Fabrication Workers — California, Colorado, Texas, and Washington, 2017–2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;68:813–818. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6838a1

Legally, the means and methods involved in fabricating this material fall outside of the architect’s purview, but the decision whether or not to specify it in the first place does not. The Architecture Lobby at YSoA invites you to join us in committing to refrain from this material specification and to share knowledge of the dangers it poses to fabrication workers.