Material Cultures

Material Cultures is a not-for-profit organisation transforming our built environment for the post-carbon future. Led by architects Summer Islam, Paloma Gormley and George Massoud, the practice combines design, practical research and action to develop, refine and champion natural, low-carbon construction materials and methods, with a view to reinventing material culture.

There are three strands to the organisation. Material Cultures Design encompasses ecologically driven design and development projects across all sectors and scales, from one-off buildings to complete communities. Material Cultures Lab focuses on research and development to drive material, technological and systemic innovation. Material Homes produces designs for regenerative, zero-carbon housing, employing natural, UK-sourced materials including softwood timber, stone, clay, lime, and plant fibres such as hemp to construct circular-economy homes that are desirable, healthy and easy to maintain. 

One of their earliest projects, Flat House – a home in Cambridgeshire constructed from low-carbon timber prefabricated hempcrete structural panels – attracted widespread national attention in 2019, and Material Cultures’s profile has been growing ever since. The team are currently working on the Phoenix Project in Lewes – a development of more than 700 timber and hempcrete homes in Lewes, East Sussex.

Having been following eco-driven material innovations in architecture for many years, Zetteler has been familiar with Material Cultures work for some time, and we were very happy to see their work first-hand at the Design Museum’s Waste Age exhibition last year, for which they steered the spatial design. We’re thrilled to have the chance to work with them directly, focusing on the launch of their beautiful new book, Material Form.

materialcultures.org