48: building materials

Builiding materials are that which architecture is constructed. We see the surfaces, not always thinking about the deep histories and structural constraints of such materials. This is a collection of thoughts, observations and ideas about materials that make up buildings, extractive processes, environmental consequences and new bio-materials leading us into an optimistic future.

on site review 48: building materials

Architecture presents its material face to the world, its material structure to itself. In this issue we have challenges to this: materials can be ancient, convenient, inappropriate, problematic, surprising, apt.

From traditional to innovative, from new to old, there are historical shifts along such trajectories that relate to technology, conflict, exploration, revision, identity, manufacturing and refinement capacities. Skill sets, scarcity of raw materials, or surplus materials — all these are unpredictable, and yet, somehow, architecture responds. And not only architecture, but artists, writers, poets, researchers, theorists and conservators.

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