Material Cultures was founded to bring together design, material research and high level strategic thinking to make meaningful progress towards a post-carbon built environment. We provide design services, undertake hands-on construction and refurbishment projects, and work with public, private and third sector organisations interested in developing and delivering a regenerative, low-carbon built environment.
Our work investigates how material and industrial cultures shape the world and challenges the regulations, supply chains and processes that to a large extent prescribe how the buildings we inhabit are made, function and feel. We think this can change and needs to change at speed. Modern methods of construction have the capacity to transform the way in which things are built and offer the space to generate new forms of culture in the construction industry.
Through our work we have demonstrated that low carbon local materials can be more affordable and durable than globally-sourced, petrochemical-derivative materials, and are capable of comfortably meeting and outperforming industry standards.
The material resources on which our futures are dependent - softwood timber, stone, clay, lime, plant fibres and shiv - can be grown and sourced across the UK and their production is low intensity. As reducing embodied carbon in the construction industry becomes necessary, and as oil prices rise and we look towards a post brexit economy the UK will need to rebuild its manufacturing economy and crucially make commitments to a low carbon approach.
In the UK current architectural languages predominantly belong to a lineage that is born from cis white male cultures. The fact that it is so hard for us to think and design beyond these languages is in part due to the fact that they are now embedded in the vocabulary of components, products, and regulations that frame architectural possibility. Our work explores the potential for a new architectural language to emerge through and from direct contact with materials and the processes of making and a creative interpretation of the regulations.
Construction and maintenance presently accounts for over 40% of total UK carbon emissions. 11% of the industry’s carbon emissions are derived from the manufacture of materials. Current housing models depend on large amounts of high-energy materials, mass-manufactured overseas, with short lifespans. If we are to halt the progress of ecological breakdown we need to radically rethink the logic of current construction methods, the materials we use and our approach to growth. In doing so it is likely that we will need to both recover some of our forgotten technologies and develop entirely new forms of architectural language.
In this context we have established Material Cultures – an organisation which brings together design, research and action towards a post carbon built environment. Inherently integrative, the design-led research project intersects material science, engineering, systems thinking, digital technologies and architectural design with a direct, active and practical approach. We aim to co-opt the factory as a place of creativity rather than mass homogeneity.
We are interested in developing qualitative prototypical buildings, which are sustainable, economically viable, and positively impact their inhabitant’s lives through considered design and accessible adaptability. We develop building typologies which touch lightly on the ground. In a climate in which warranties dictate design, and the nature of construction contracts limit quality, Material Cultures seeks to redistribute the priorities of the construction process in favour of design and sustainability.
Summer Islam
Summer Islam AADipl (hons) ARB is a founding Director of Material Cultures. Summer is an architect, educator and researcher. Her work is focussed on the holistic integration of design, construction technology, policy and strategy. Summer carries out research at the University of the Arts London and the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She has also taught at the University College London, the London Metropolitan University and the University of Cambridge. Summer recently published a ground-breaking research project for the region of Yorkshire and the North East in the UK; a study of the feasibility of biobased and circular construction across the region which explores the economic and ecological impact of a radical material transition for the entire supply chain of the construction industry.
Paloma Gormley
Paloma Gormley MA (Cantab) is a founding Director of Material Cultures. She is an internationally acclaimed designer responsible for a series of celebrated architectural and urban projects. Her work is rooted in an understanding of material technology and construction, underpinned by an appreciation of haptic knowledge and collaborative processes. Paloma is an experienced educator and researcher, and currently co-runs 'Construction in Detail' in the Spatial Studies department at the University of the Arts London. Previously she has taught at the Bartlett, University College London and the London Metropolitan University. Paloma has led on a number of significant demonstrator projects and is currently developing a 90 unit residential development in Lewes, Sussex.
George Massoud
George Massoud AA Dipl ARB RIBA is a Director at Material Cultures. George is an architect, educator and cultural worker. He is interested in how we can build a future rooted in mutual interdependence with the various ecologies that shape our built environment. This underlying philosophy is explored in the spaces he occupies as a practitioner: in the studio, in the classroom and in the community. In practice, George has extensive experience working on a range of arts projects, complex refurbishments and commercial developments. George is Unit Master at the Architectural Association, exploring how alternative social ecologies are shaped through material and spatial politics. He is also producer and founding member of POA, a feminist, queer community platform for reimagining value systems.
Selected Books
Super Thatch:
The new thatch architecture and sustainability culture
Oliver Lowenstien
2021, Fourth Door Books
Radical Architecture of the Future,
Beatrice Galilee
2020, Phaidon
This is Temporary:
How transient projects redefining architecture
Cate St Hill
2017, RIBA Publishing
New Architects 3, Britain’s Best Emerging Practices,
The Architecture Foundation
2016, Merrell
Restaurant Design and Food Experiences
R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, S. Moreno
2010, Gestalten
Clients
- Arup
- The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
- Cecence
- Central Saint Martins, UAL
- The Design Museum
- Grizedale Arts
- Forestry England
- HG Matthews
- Human Nature
- London Metropolitan University
- Naked House
- Newham London Borough Council
- SOM Foundation
- Timber Strategies
- York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership
- Woods into Management Fund
- Work Ltd
Collaborators
- Alessandra de Mitri
- Alastair Howard
- Aya Mousa
- Caitlin McNamara
- Ceri Hedderwick Turner
- Christopher Gabe
- Christopher Kokarev
- Connie Beauchamp
- Daria Moatazed-Keivani
- Eloise Coleman
- Henry Stringer
- Ker Jia Goh
- Jeffrey Hart
- Jez Ralph
- Joy Mulandi
- Margit Kraft
- Marwa El Mubark
- Sam Little
- Sodueari Graham-Douglas
- Tom Hart
- William Hayter
- Will Bradley
- Will Stanwix
- Xiao Fang
Selected Press
04.2022
Best practise
Eleanor Young, The RIBA Journal
07.2021
A new sustainability paradigm
Michael Pawlyn, Domus
06.2021
Make low-tech our mantra and design clean and simple
Edmund Fowles, The RIBA Journal
06.2021
In Practice: Material Cultures on decarbonising construction
The Architecture Review
05.2021
The tyranny of concrete and its costly carbon footprint
Layli Foroudi, The Financial Times
06.2021
Can design solve the housing Crisis?
Tracy Ingram, Frame Magazine
04.2021
How can low-tech and natural materials help avert the climate emergency?
Pamela Buxton, The RIBA Journal
09.2020
Prototype for a plant-based future
Icon Magazine, UK
07.2020
Unit 7 Students At The London Metropolitan University, Polyvalent Studio
Divisare
07.2020
Brand New Heroes
Elle, Germany
06.2020
From Farm to Form: Flat house by Practice Architecture
Architect’s Journal, UK
06.2020
Brand New Heroes
Elle, United Kingdom
05.2020
Flat House by Practice Architecture and Material Cultures
Blueprint, UK
04.2020
Flat House:A small building proposes a radical – and necessary – rethink of the construction industry
Architecture Today, UK
01.2020
British Architects build a low-carbon home using hemp
New Atlas, UK
01.2020
Zero-carbon home uses hemp fibre for innovative design
Inhabitat
01.2020
Hemp is used on the inside and out of Cambridgeshire’s Flat House
Dezeen
12.2019
Rowan Moore’s Best Architecture of 2019
The Observer, UK
12.2019
Home made of hemp that will blow your mind
The Observer, UK
12.2019
Zero Carbon hemp house complete
Construction Management Magazine