Material Specialization: The Next Big Thing in Sustainable Building Design ?

1. Material Specialization: The Next Big Thing in Sustainable Building Design? Materials form an integral part of built forms. Anything designed needs to be made of an appropriate material, or a mix of materials for that variety! Designers have been experimenting with materials throughout history, be it Lauri Baker with his modest bricks or Frank Gehry with his dramatic titanium. Every day a new material is being invented and new ways of looking at old materials are found. The growing concern for sustainable building design has led new age designers to study and experiment with materials extensively, some managing to make material their branding! Read through to find out about some popular materials and the designers those have become their ambassadors:

2. A Story in Timber A traditional natural building material, timber seems to be making a resurgence. Versatile in nature, but not without limitations, it has always been the centre of attention for material researchers. Its light carbon footprint (can even be carbon positive!), recyclability, and workability makes it a great material for creating sustainable building designs for areas with high timber availability. Experimenting with scrapwood furniture like Piet Hien Eek or building skyscrapers of timber like Chris Precht, designers are going above and beyond in testing the extents of this material for a greener future on this planet. [Also read: Why is Chris Precht One of the Most Popular Young Architects Today?] Stones have a Heart Nothing screams rustic more than stone! Being one of the primary natural building materials, it is abundantly available in many different forms, colours and textures. Post the industrial revolution, it was lost among newer materials, only to rise tougher than ever (pun intended)! Design groups like Peter Rich Architects from South Africa and Earthitects from India are giving new definitions to stone-built spaces and pouring life into the static forms we live in. Earthy Encounters Building from earth has been in practice since prehistoric times. Earth shelters are made of treated mud/ soil/clay or a mix of soil with straw and stones which have proven to be good in responding to the local climate. Few may doubt the durability and strength of earth structures, but architects like Chitra Vishwanath from Biome and Suhasini Ayer Guigan from Auroville Design Consultants have been revamping the practice of earth architecture, advocating for sustainable building design, and permanently associating their names with mud structures along the way! [Also read: Best Architecture Firms in Asia to Intern With]

3. Best Out of Waste Do you remember making art from pencil shavings or bookmarks from ice cream sticks as a kid? Imagine doing that to real-life built forms! Architects like Michael Reynolds and Vinu Daniel have been taking a trip back to school. Using scrap or salvaged materials to create brilliant structures, they nudge not only other designers but also the general public towards sustainable living. Imagine creating a niche so strong that when ‘building with waste’ is mentioned, your name automatically comes to mind! This is innovation and branding at its finest. The Glass Class From a mirror to the building exterior, glass can be found everywhere! Its (often over-use) in the building gives a sleek, contemporary look. But if used well, it has soundproofing and insulation qualities which make it suitable for green building design (think fiberglass and glass bricks!). Some use of glass is unavoidable because you have to let in light, but Bohlin Cywinski Jackson embraces the lightness and transparency of glass to look at public spaces in a whole new way. The Concrete Jungle

4. Concrete is undoubtedly the most used man-made building material in the construction industry, and a favourite of the brutalists among us. But today, it is no longer simply hidden away in unseen foundations or structural framework. Korean Architect Lee Hun Chung makes use of the solidness of concrete to create fixed furniture, bringing the built surroundings to our body! A Bamboo Forest Originally highly underrated, Bamboo is rapidly gaining international popularity as a sustainable building material. It has immense compressive and tensile strength, and the fact that it is a kind of grass means that it can grow as fast as 1-4 inches per day! Conventionally used for making domestic items, temporary structures and scaffolding, Bamboo has the potential for much more. In the spirit of uplifting green building design practices, Vietnamese Architect Vo Trong Nghia stated that this ‘green steel’ of the 21st century will take over other materials in the years to come! The Wicker Park Don’t we all love to see the intricately woven picnic baskets or rattan chairs, a sprinkle of wickerwork here and there? One of the most domestic forms of crafts, wickerwork can give a space character and authenticity, and occupies lots of respect in the furniture and interior design industries. With parametric and computational design tools that can model complex organic forms, The Wicker Story creates furniture and interiors using wicker, and has made the material their identity! [Also read: Top Parametric Design Firms in India] Design is an exciting and dynamic field with new avenues opening up every day! In a quest to explore new solutions for present-day problems, and for creating very relevant, niche branding for themselves, material specialisation is indeed the next big thing in design. With the kind of resources available today, it isn’t difficult to start your own research on materials that intrigue you. If you need help getting out of your comfort zone, explore in-depth online design courses with Oneistox!

5. [Read: 8 Reasons Why Designers Choose to Upskill With Oneistox] About the Author Neha Sharma | Architect An architect by profession and an artist by nature, Neha is fascinated by all the subjects which involve art and humanism. She has a diverse set of interests; doodling, dance, photography, writing and collaborative activities which made her pursue the field of architecture and design. She believes herself to be a people person and never misses a chance to learn something new.