Material Cultures
Material Cultures

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.

Design

Our design team has a track record of producing award-winning, contextually specific buildings based on regenerative design principles, for both public and private clients. Our work demonstrates bio-based materials can produce generous, robust and beautiful spaces, and we work with clients to support informed decision-making about the whole-life time impact of their project, working across the project stages from brief development through to overseeing construction.

Lab

Our not-for-profit Lab supports public, private and third sector research working towards a lower carbon construction industry in the UK, with a focus on regenerative material sourcing and circular economies.  Our projects address the barriers to material reform from land-use and policy constraints to technical and material challenges in supply chains and on site.  We deliver strategic planning, regenerative system design, material research and product development.

Homes

We work with developers and housebuilders to integrate regenerative construction principles and off-site methodologies into large scale housing projects.  Drawing from our industry leading research and development projects we deliver whole building and systems designs.  Our interdisciplinary team brings design, supply chain, manufacturing and material science expertise together to produce fully specified, regionally specific Building Information Models (BIM) available at digital twin resolution. 

Our design team produce award-winning, contextually specific and ambitious buildings for both public and private clients. Our work is based on regenerative principles, using regionally sourced, low carbon materials to produce spaces that are high performance, spatially generous and often economic to build. We can provide support with brief development, masterplanning, design development and project management, taking an integrated approach to project delivery that ensures robust, functional and well detailed buildings. 

Our highly location specific approach means both the spatial and material resolution of each project is developed in conversation with our clients, and in response the particular qualities of the site, including wider ecological context. We can work with our clients to indentify and develop an appropriate material pallet and construction approach, take a project through planning and permissions processes, manage collaborative design processes and oversee or undertake construction. 

Summer Islam

Summer Islam AADipl (hons) ARB is a founding Director of Material Cultures. Her work is focussed on the holistic integration of construction technologies and design. Summer co-runs 'Construction in Detail' in the Spatial Studies department at the University of the Arts London. Summer has taught at the Bartlett, University College London, the London Metropolitan University, the Architectural Association and the University of Cambridge. She was previously an associate at award-winning design practice 6a architects in London. Summer co-founded architecture and design practice Studio Abroad with George Massoud in 2014. 

Paloma Gormley

Paloma Gormley MA (Cantab) is a founding Director of Material Cultures. She is an internationally acclaimed designer responsible for a series celebrated architectural and urban projects. Her work is rooted in a creative pragmatism whilst drawing on new technologies and the integration of new materials. Paloma co-runs 'Construction in Detail' in the Spatial Studies department at the University of the Arts London and has previously taught at the Bartlett, University College London and the London Metropolitan University. She founded Practice Architecture with Lettice Drake in 2009, through which she has completed a number of critically acclaimed arts and cultural projects, including the theatre at the Yard, a performance space for Bold Tendencies. and The Peckham Hotel.

George Massoud

George Massoud AA Dipl ARB RIBA is a Director at Material Cultures. He is an architect, educator and cultural worker. In practice, George has extensive experience working on a range of arts projects, complex refurbishments and commercial developments. He is a founding director of Studio Abroad, which he established with Summer Islam in 2014. 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 through mutual interdependence.

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
  • Work Ltd
  • Xylotek

Collaborators

  • Alessandra de Mitri
  • Alastair Howard
  • Aya Mousa
  • Ceri Hedderwick Turner
  • Christopher Gabe
  • Christopher Kokarev
  • Connie Beauchamp
  • Daria Moatazed-Keivani
  • Eloise Coleman
  • Henry Stringer
  • Ker Jia Goh
  • Jeffrey Hart
  • Joy Mulandi
  • Marwa El Mubark
  • Sam Little
  • Sodueari Graham-Douglas
  • Tom Hart
  • William Hayter
  • Will Stanwix

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