We bring together design, research and 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.

Research

Our not-for-profit lab supports public, private and third sector lead 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 change, 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.

Make

MAKE is a learning platform that foregrounds practical and accessible construction skills. We run education programmes and courses that tackle the significant skills gap in the UK: the country lacks the technical knowledge and skills required to transition to a low carbon construction economy. At the centre of the project are hands-on workshops, led in partnership with master builders and material specialists from across
the UK.

Selected Books

Material Reform
Material Cultures with Amica Dall
2022, Mack Books

Build: From High to Low Tech
Hinterland Architecture Studio
2022, Build Porto

Manual of Biogenic House Selections
Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis
2022, ORO Editions

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

Selected Press

05.2023

The Big Picture: A Conversation with Material Cultures

Will Higginbotham, Well Life, Lived Well

05.2023

The Building Materials of the Future Might Be Growing in Your Backyard

Marianna Janowicz, Untapped Journal

02.2023

Green Labour: Material Reform and The Value of a Whale

George Kafka, The Architectural Review

01.2023

Homegrown show makes compelling case for post-carbon construction

Pamela Buxton, The RIBA Journal

01.2023

London architecture exhibitions 2023: a guide to the best shows this month

Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper

01.2023

Material Reform: Building for a Post-Carbon Future

Vanessa Norwood, The London Society

12.2022

Change of Mindset

Eleanor Young, Stylepark

12.2022

5 Regenerative Design Principles by Material Cultures

Kendra Jackson, Azure Magazine

12.2022

In Material Reform, Material Cultures Rethinks the Cultures, Systems, and Infrastructures of How We Make Architecture

Material Cultures, The Architect’s Newspaper

11.2022

Design, Climate Action: Regenerative Exhibition Design

Sophie Tolhurst, Design Week

11.2022

This is What Post-Carbon Design Looks Like Now

David Thorpe, The Fifth Estate

07.2022

The Future is Hempcrete

Malaika Byng, Metropolis

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