Sustainable & Regenerative Materials for Architecture: A Sourcebook

Will McLean and Pete Silver

Will and Pete inspire us here. They have trawled the network of excellent scientists and designers to find materials, design and construction that leap off the page and make you want to become a natural builder without delay.

Jonathan Smales, Human Nature

There is a creative explosion of work taking place in architecture and design schools exploring materials such as mycelium, clay/earth, engineered timber, bio-based plastics and algae. This handbook of low- and no-carbon materials for architects and designers focuses on sustainable materials, their sourcing, technical properties and the processes required for their use in architecture. The book showcases new and rediscovered processes for material fabrication, responsible sourcing and creative material design. Material properties (structural, thermal, fire, health and life safety) are described and case studies from around the world illustrate the inventive ways in which these materials have been deployed in the built environment. The book is designed as an introduction to the exciting and rapidly changing world of construction materials.

With a better understanding of the social, environmental and economic sustainability of any given material - alongside its technical properties - students of architecture can lead the change in responsible and creative material use.

Available 31.01.2025 from Laurence King Publishing

Due for publication January 2025 by Laurence King Publishing, London
208pp 230x180mm Paperback
ISBN 9781529433272 
Foreword by Jonathan Smales