Should we be building our homes with materials like straw, hemp, wood and clay – materials we may think of as belonging to the past (thatched roofs, mud walls, etc....)?

Join Oxfordshire Community Land Trust for a talk by the brilliant designers, makers and researchers Material Cultures, who make the case that we should – and that far from belonging to the past, this approach is essential for our future.

Material Cultures bring together design, research and strategic thinking to make meaningful progress towards a post-carbon built environment. Their approach involves examining the whole supply chain of materials used for construction projects – from their extraction and/or production through to their final use and disposal – to ensure that the way we build is not just sustainable, but as environmentally regenerative as possible. They've shown how this approach can result in beautiful buildings that both enrich the natural environment and may have significant benefits for the people who use and inhabit them.

• ** UPDATE (13/01/24): If you'd be interested in participating in biobased building skills workshops coordinated by OCLT over summer 2025, please register your interest here. The cost and dates of these courses are yet to be confirmed, but they are likely to focus on the use of different construction materials for different purposes, e.g. timber framing, hempcrete insulation, clay plastering**

Material Cultures are one of the architecture practices working on “The Phoenix” in Lewes, East Sussex, a sustainable neighbourhood on a former industrial site. They provide design services, undertake hands-on construction and refurbishment projects, and work with public, private and third sector organisations – often in a highly participatory way that involves local communities.

You can find out more about their work here.

“The homes we need”

This is the third in a series of events hosted by Oxfordshire Community Land Trust (OCLT) on the theme “the homes we need”. Subscribe to our newsletter and/or follow us on our social media channels (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook) to hear about future events.