Material Stories

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An architecture of integrity with Alventosa Morell Arquitectes and Joan J. Fortuny

The Balearic Islands are driving an architecture revolution via IBAVI's low-impact housing. Alventosa Morell Arquitectes and Joan J. Fortuny's project is a model of this ethos. Using site-excavated stones and compacted-earth walls the building is an act of knowledge exchange for public building.

An architecture of patience: Rammed Earth House by Tuckey Design Studio

The Rammed Earth House in Wiltshire by Tuckey Design Studio reflects a slow, thoughtful approach to design. Commissioned by a couple, it’s shaped by how they live together, the sun’s arc, and the surrounding landscape.

Streets ahead

In a Birmingham house, Civic Square opens up the hidden layers of the housing crisis. Retrofit House uses natural materials and collective learning to link housing, health and climate, and to show how neighbourhoods might repair themselves.

Finchley Road by Groupwork: advancing the new Stone Age

Groupwork’s Finchley Road project elevates stone construction with over 400 precision-engineered Larvikite beams and columns. A low-carbon alternative to steel and concrete, it combines structural innovation and sustainability building on lessons from Clerkenwell Close.

Bridging the gap: the Living Bridge, Bali

The Living Bridge at Green School Bali is a hands-on learning space where students, teachers and local craftsmen built together.

Fragments of the future: how circular design can reimagine waste

From demolition rubble to olive pits and coffee grounds, designers are turning waste into beautiful, useful materials. Circular design celebrates local resources and sustainability, giving discarded items new life while telling the story of their past.

Brick from a stone: Arch Revival

At Clerkenwell Design Week, the Arch Revival Pavilion wowed visitors with sweeping stone arches. Made from local stone, it uses far less carbon than clay bricks while staying strong and elegant, showing that sustainable design can be both beautiful and bold.

Clayworks: the ancient lineage of clay

Today clay is experiencing a remarkable renaissance, establishing itself as an important part of the sustainable materials palette. This revival owes a great deal to Clayworks, the Cornwall-based company redefining the use of clay in contemporary design.

Natural warmth: rethinking insulation in a warming world

Thick stone walls, dense timber frames filled with straw, and packed-earth structures held in warmth through winter and repelled heat in the summer. These materials, raw, organic and local, were not chosen for their insulating properties alone but for their abundance and endurance.

The language of stone: Stone Curators

“People love stone” says Gavin Johnston, founder of Stone Curators. He should know, his opinion is one based on years of working with likeminded and appreciative clients who have tasked Gavin with finding exactly the right stone for their projects.

MaterialDistrict Insights

At ARCHITEXTURES, we’re dedicated to sharing our love of materials to bring our growing community of architects and designers the innovative, contemporary materials changing the way we construct our built environment.

Constructing change: the circular economy building solution

Challenging current linear practices from extraction, to construction, to waste, Scottish startup Kenoteq is reimagining the brick by creating a climate conscious circular ecosystem.

Beneath the surface, stories from Grow House Grow

In 2008, when Cuban American illustrator turned entrepreneur Katie Deedy founded wallpaper company Grow House Grow, the world had turned grey. Collectively, we were covering our walls in monochromatic colours. Katie was about to change all that

Mirrl, the making of modern heirlooms

One evening, Simon was set to cook his hosts dinner. He opened a cutlery drawer to discover a pair of chopsticks. The chopsticks were unlike anything he’d seen before. Simon had discovered Tsugaru Nuri, a three-hundred-year-old Japanese lacquerware technique.

The Art of wallpaper: the Sandberg Story

Sandberg Wallpaper was established in 1976 by the Sandberg family in Sweden, to create wallpapers and fabrics that blend classic designs with contemporary Scandinavian aesthetics.