Geology is the architecture of our planet and what we build has always been dependent on what the earth has already made. Yet in recent decades we, rather than the planet, have produced the geology of the future: millions of tonnes of concrete, plastic, brick, metal and other fabricated materials are quickly piling up to eventually become new strata. Can we recover a more equitable relationship to the earth? Providing a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture, this book asks what architects do with, and what they might learn from, what the earth creates. From caves and crystals to volcanoes and earthquakes, The Matter of Architecture delves deep to mine a different way of building.

Paul Dobraszczyk is an architectural writer and a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London. His books include Future Cities (2019) and Animal Architecture (2023), both published by Reaktion, as well as Architecture and Anarchism (2021).