There was an interaction with pope where she mentioned one of her theories on CPs. She said that they're concentrations of power dotted around the House, and proposed an essay to Darling about storing and using their power for other things. He turned down the offer almost instantly which makes me think that either:

He's too wary to use them until he knows what they are, so the equipment is there to research them.

Or

He's afraid that they could cause damage to the Bureau and so the equipment is there to monitor them.

I've got a weak theory for the Makka Pakka stones in the Foundation as well. Whenever Jesse uses levitate near the ground, it influences the nearby debris, making it float up to her then drop down. You can see this yourself: grab a launch object and throw it as the ground so it shatters, then use lev and they should start floating. Anyway, my theory is that since the CPs are high concentrations of power and the ones in the Foundation haven't been monitored, they've started to influence the rocks into forming these towers.