Extraction, Straw, Wodland Goods, Timber, 2022
Material Cultures
video editor
Material Cultures is a not-for-profit design and research organisation working at the intersection of natural materials, low embodied carbon construction and construction technology. These films were displayed at the Building Centre as part of the Homegrown: Building a Post Carbon Future Exhibition
▨ SUPPORTED BY: Built by Nature
▤ RUNNING TIME: 6m 51s
▥ COLLABORATORS: Ella Frost / Mhamad Safa / Kate Handford / Amica Dall / The Building Centre Team
The contemporary construction industry is entirely dependent on an abundance of cheap oil fuels, not only to produce the materials we use, but also the machines that extract the raw materials, and the lorries, ships and railways that transport them. Most contemporary buildings are directly dependent on fossil fuel products, from polyurethane and polystyrene insulation, PVC membranes and composite panelling to plastic ground sheets and sticky tape.
Architecture must balance the needs of the land with the needs of construction, developing infrastructures, technologies, and materials that can bring the two back into carefully managed interdependence. To achieve these, more equitable approaches to the distribution and use of land must be developed, that consider the needs of a community, the lives of people working the land, and the structure of regional economies together.
TYPE: Film
▨ SUPPORTED BY: Built by Nature
▤ RUNNING TIME: 6m 40s
▥ COLLABORATORS: Ella Frost / Mhamad Safa / Kate Handford / Amica Dall / The Building Centre team
Shifting towards a built environment based on bio-based materials, including straw, will require a set of changes in practice that span from land-use to how we care for buildings. Some applications of straw can last almost indefinitely - others require cyclic replacement.
Integrating straw as a key building material will require a move towards building a stronger relationship between agriculture and architecture, a restructuring of construction supply chains, and significant new skills training. However, it is an opportunity waiting to be acted upon. The construction technologies are proven, and the UK already produces more than enough straw year-on-year to meet demand.
▨ SUPPORTED BY: V&A Museum
▤ RUNNING TIME: 3m 57s
▥ COLLABORATORS: Ella-Justine Frost / Mhamad Safa / Ben Cruise / Felix Koch / Jess Gough / Rachael Milliner / Evolving Forest / Amica Dall
Woodlands will sit at the heart of regenerative construction practices. Timber is a fantastically capable material; it can both span and bear load, and, when it is well specified and maintained, it can last for hundreds of years. Growing trees actively regenerate the land they take root in, creating above and below ground habitats, contributing to soil health and terrestrial water storage. If they are treated carefully once felled, they can continue to store carbon for longer than the time they needed to fix it from the atmosphere.To move away from monoculture as an approach to land use, we must also move away from a focus on graded timber and its byproducts as the sole materials to be drawn from these complex and diverse ecosystems.
Using our woodland resources more holistically can generate multiple materials streams, revenue forms and employment opportunities. For example, industrial timber production today often overlooks the very valuable resource which is within the outer layer of the tree; the barks, resins and saps which carry water and sugars through the body of a living tree. Indigenous communities across the globe have long understood how to work with these materials, and also how to extract them in ways that are not damaging to the long term health of the tree. As we move into a new material economy, we are both relearning this understanding of sustainable woodland cultivation and harvesting, and creating new technologies which eliminate the need for chemical adhesives and glues when we bind bark and other plant fibres together into innovative, low-embodied carbon sheet materials.