Practices, including Tate+Co, PLP Architecture, Assemble, Architype, and Marks Barfield Architects, discuss their approach to material stewardship.

Buildings.

Bi-products of the sunflower industry in Arles, provided material for the walls of Le Magasin Electrique, a workspace for Atelier Luma at the Luma Arles arts centre in France. Designed by Assemble, in collaboration with Atelier Luma and BC architects & studies, the project used materials made from bio-waste, by-products, and other undervalued materials sourced within a 43-mile radius of the site (photo: Assemble).

Co-evolving with nature

Part 2 of the Regenerative Architecture Index focuses on ‘Co-evolving with nature’. This is about recognising that we are part of – as opposed to separate from – the natural world. It recognises the importance of actively regenerating ecosystems by learning from and working with natural systems. This requires designing for circularity and encouraging closed-loop energy, material and water cycles. Responses in this section were assessed by Architects Declare steering group members Anna Lisa McSweeney, Alasdair Ben Dixon and Craig Robertson, with expert input from RAI ambassador Phoebe Tickell – renegade scientist, systems thinker and social entrepreneur. Read more about Part 2 of the RAI here. 

Projects Question 2
Is the practice working on material stewardship? For example, evidence could be shown through repeated use of low-carbon materials, extensive material libraries, and research or publications supporting responsible use of materials and the elimination of waste.

Answers breakdown

Front-runner

Assemble
The practice has always explored its projects through the lens of the materials they are made from, with its roots in the hands-on making of its own projects. In early projects this entailed material reuse and DIY methodologies, such as in our first scheme, the Cineroleum. In recent projects, such as Le Magasin Electrique for Atelier Luma, and our scheme for the architectural biennale of Gwangju, this has evolved into an advanced level of material development with our collaborators to develop locally- sourced, bioregional, or transitional materials and products. In Luma this meant that the vast majority of the building materials originated from within 43 miles of the site.

Runner-up

Architype
Architype has pioneered bio-based materials since its formation, including the first UK use of Warmcell cellulose- based insulation in the 1980s, I-joists, and Larsen truss timber-frame details. Our experts authored TRADA specification guidance on detailing untreated timber and recently revisited many projects for a TDUK publication.

Our bio-based EnerPHit-certified retrofit of the Entopia Building was showcased in RIBA’s circular economy exhibition, and RETROFIT 24 at the Building Centre in London. The Enterprise Centre design at UEA won the inaugural Open City Stewardship Awards for materials and resource management.

For Royal Agricultural University’s Innovation Village, a layered materials strategy embraces ‘form follows availability’ and a stretch target for
100 per cent bio-based new materials. The HGV storage requirement was reimagined as a way to provide an on-site materials library, symbolising a long- term material stewardship commitment. We are currently investigating the implementation of predemolition audits in Scotland, where no guidance has yet been published.

Ones to watch

Hawkins\Brown
We have researched embodied and whole life carbon (WLC), and data integration into design processes for more than a decade, recently focussing on the circular economy to increase quality reuse of existing buildings and materials. This heavily influences our choices.

  • Our free WLC tool H\B:ERT has thousands of downloads. We have developed this into VERT, focussing good early decision making.
  • We co-authored RICS’ WLCA standard updates, driving best practice and emphasising retrofit.
  • We support bodies including RIBA, RICS, UKGBC, LETI, NLA, UKNZCBS and the GLA with guidance and reviews.
  • In 2022 we supported the RIBA Material Choices exhibition and lecture series with case studies, including 55 Great Suffolk Street, and the Modular Campus.
  • We sponsored the 2023 UKGBC embodied carbon programme and developed material guidance for clients (City of London and Assura).
  • We regularly lecture with related case studies, most recently RIBA, Footprint+ and in Italy.

Tate+Co
We have a series of standard clauses in our material specification process that ensures responsible sources of materials, ranging from the use of FSC/PEFC timber to an absolute ban on PVC. We have ongoing projects looking to use super-local sourcing to ensure a detailed understanding of material provenance. These include a cabin/lodge tourism development for the Birling Estate in a chestnut coppice, where we are going to use coppiced timber from the site itself to construct the 25 lodges (we will be working with the roundwood expert Ben Laws and the timber specialists Xylotek).

We have also started a housing scheme with igloo Regeneration and the Crown Estate where we will construct hempcrete houses made from hemp grown on an adjacent 60 hectare site, with an onsite factory facilitating local pre-fabrication and sourcing of other materials and labour.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Associate Tim den Dekker is a co-leader of the LETI Circular Economy Workstream, leading an industry effort to converge on a single circular economy metric.

In 2020 we launched FCBS Carbon as a free early design stage tool for the industry to calculate and monitor how the use of different materials can affect the carbon impact of a project. In house, this has led to greater use of low-carbon materials, but also a leaner approach to the use of higher carbon materials in our work.

Partner Joe Jack Williams is co-editor of Materials: An Environmental Primer, and his continued research, along with  that of our cross-practice sustainability champions ensures that the practice is fully aware of the impacts of traditional and innovative materials.

The Woodland Trust HQ (2011) was a pioneering timber building, and William Perkin CofE School was, at the time, the largest CLT project.

Marks Barfield Architects
As part of the practice’s research and development streams through MBA’s Climate Action Group, we have developed a digital and physical sustainable materials library to help in the responsible selection of new materials where necessary on projects. These look to champion low-carbon, biomaterials while also considering factors such as locality, cost, accreditations, and longevity.

Moreover, as part of one of our pro bono research streams we are exploring the repurposing of waste materials, such as secondary timber members into a modular structural framing systems (in collaboration with Simpleworks engineers). Alongside this, we are part of several working groups and industry initiatives supporting the elimination of waste, such as the Material Passports Working Group with Orms. We have also developed our own passports and a series of material working groups with the ASBP, which is currently looking at the reuse of partitions. A key driver for us is optimising material efficiency and striving for sufficiency.

PLP Architecture
PLP Architecture is working on material stewardship through its internal design collaborative, PLP Labs. The research group is actively exploring regenerative materials, such as mycelium and timber, and finding ways to use these materials in innovative ways. For example, the creation of a biodegradable, regenerative building block. Here, we combined the ingenuity of engineering with the natural characteristics of fungi by bonding mycelium and 3D-printed wood shells. This technique allows mycelium to grow in an infinite number of configurations with high levels of precision.

PLP Labs has also researched high- rise timber and the fabrication of semi-permanent timber partitions and modular timber buildings in collaboration with Cambridge University. We work with contractors to build a body of knowledge based on project experiences, linking our innovation and research to practical on-site work.

Exploration Architecture
We are currently engaged in a Fellowship in Regenerative Design (funded by the 1851 Commission), which is exploring material stewardship. Our aim is to develop (in partnership with a manufacturer of mycelium insulation) a biobased and bioregionally-sourced structurally-insulated panel. We believe this could deliver substantial resource savings in timber compared to more conventional approaches to construction.

The project will also explore materials stewardship in ways that are inspired by ecosystems. By understanding how real ecosystems work it is possible to radically rethink the way we steward materials so that we can approach the same zero waste, solar-based, interdependent and regenerative model found in nature.