Designed for decay: A 3D printable yeast-based biomaterial
A team at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has worked out how to turn baker’s yeast into an architectural surface.
LATEST
Certifications
Cradle to Cradle
Cradle to Cradle is a circular product certification assessing material health, reuse, carbon, water and social fairness. Learn how it works and what it means.
Declare
Declare is a material transparency label showing what building products are made from. Learn what it measures, what it doesn’t, and how to use it.
GECA (Good Environmental Choice Australia)
GECA is Australia’s official ecolabel for products. Learn what it measures, what it doesn’t, who it’s for, and how it supports better specification.
Bamboo
Bamboo could be Australia’s most underused climate solution
While bamboo has long been celebrated in parts of Asia for its strength, speed and sustainability, Australia is only just beginning to recognise its potential as a viable building material – and a powerful tool in the climate response.
Bamboo’s tensile strength unlocked
Bamboo in construction is a high strength and easily accessible building material, with potential to revolutionise sustainable building practices.
Bamboo’s role in emergency housing and modular construction
Bamboo is often used as a resource for emergency shelters due to its rapid growth rate, accessibility and strength.
Hempcrete
Hempcrete vs conventional building materials
Hempcrete vs. Concrete – which one comes out on top? Discover the sustainable advantages of hempcrete over concrete in this detailed comparison.
What is hempcrete? A comprehensive guide
Hempcrete construction offers a combination of sustainability, uses, applications and considerations for building projects.
CLT
VIDEO: Could a rise in mass timber and CLT cause deforestation? New research says yes
A 2025 paper in Nature Communications makes the strongest quantified case yet for building with mass timber at scale. But it also highlights the potential for deforestation.
What is cross-laminated timber? A comprehensive guide to CLT
The full comprehensive guide to cross-laminated timber (CLT) in Australia – unpacking what it is, how it’s sustainable and how it performs.
Read the Archive
CLT House is a retreat designed to weather in the open
Designed by nArchitects, CLT House is a lake house built almost entirely from exposed cross-laminated timber, scaled down from an unbuilt 2008 scheme.
Byproduct as geology: Issey Miyake x Ensamble Studio’s Paper Log
Issey Miyake’s Paper Log exhibition turned its pleated waste into furniture and sculptures, in collaboration with Ensamble Studio.
Rugs woven with silk, wool, hemp and allo
A collaboration between Marc Phillips Rugs and architect Jamie Bush, Field Studies translates aerial paintings of crop fields into rugs layered from silk, wool, hemp and allo – a wild Himalayan nettle.
A Toronto renovation that keeps a century of reuse visible
Candy Loft is a renovation in Toronto by SUSA that keeps a heritage factory’s timber columns and stonework as the feature inside a single, sculptural home.
Comfort is the most basic test of a sustainable home
Juhani Pallasmaa’s The Eyes of the Skin argues for the whole-body experience of a building – and, read one way, for comfort as the most basic measure of a sustainable home.
What is rammed earth? A comprehensive guide
Rammed earth walls bring high thermal mass, fire resistance and raw beauty. Here is a complete guide to building with earth.
