The environmental impacts of construction are momentous. How can architects minimise these by making responsible material choices?

Material choices have a global impact. The design and construction industry are responsible for 39% of all carbon emissions in the world. Despite the great desire among architects to address this, it can be difficult to compare materials directly, let alone understand the repercussions of selecting materials for use in different parts of a building or of sourcing them from across the world.

Showcasing the latest thought leadership from subject experts across the industry, this primer sets out the various considerations and parameters for specifying a particular material. It empowers architects with the knowledge of which materials are available, how best to use them, and what their future holds as the industry continues to innovate. Each chapter will be devoted to a single material and will consider environmental impacts holistically, looking at health and biodiversity impacts, among other issues.

Featuring:

• Chapters written by subject experts, including: Duncan Baker-Brown, Carol Costello, Graham Coult, Barbara Jones, Rowland Keable, Bruce Martin, Michael Stacey and Oliver Wilton.

• Mainstream and burgeoning materials, including: aluminium, bamboo, brick, concrete, cork, hemp, mycelium, plastics, steel, stone and timber.

• Diagrams, graphics and illustrated exemplars.

Author and architect Hattie Hartman is sustainability editor at the Architects’ Journal. An enthusiastic champion of sustainable design, Hattie welcomes every opportunity to engage with practitioners in the UK and abroad who are leading the way. Hattie hosts the AJ’s Climate Champions podcast and is a co-author of Energy People Buildings, RIBA Publishing 2021. She participates widely in industry juries, chairs events and lectures on design for climate emergency. Joe Jack Williams is an Associate and researcher at FCBStudios and, alongside Ian Taylor, leads environmental research for the practice, identifying, developing and enabling research across sectors and projects. He is a Certified Passivhaus Consultant. He has taught at a number of universities in the UK, including Oxford Brookes, UCL, UWE, University of Bath, and London Met, and is part of core research groups within Architects Declare, CIBSE and LETI.