Ever sense I first read about using a form to build a stone wall in the early 70's I thought it could be a good idea in the right situations.
I believe it was Helen and Scott Nearing who first brought it to my attention, maybe in their book Living The Good Life. While we were in Alamos, Sonora recently there was a fellow who was doing just that. This was going to be a retaining wall and much of it would be covered up so looks were not a priority. The haphazard form work is perfect for the demands of this job but it would be easy to tighten up the process a bit.
What would be interesting is to figure out a way to have the forms slide down to the next section automatically staying in the same plane. The rebar is probably for concrete pillars with a brick in fill that will go on top of this stone and concrete section.
With a bit more care it would be easy to to make an attractive mortared stone wall.
To see the finished wall go to the last photo in the post:
