Material, Making and Place 2027 : A playbook for resource-conscious architecture

A clear, accessible book on the future of architecture, exploring handmade, local and sustainable design, with leading designers rethinking materials, technology and place.

Architecture is being remade – crafted from local knowledge, materials and place. At a moment of environmental and social strain, Material, Making and Place explores how architects are developing new ways to build that are both grounded and inventive. Through essays, interviews with leading practitioners and closely examined case studies, it revisits fundamental questions: how buildings are made, how knowledge circulates and how practice is changing. Sustainability here is not a checklist. It grows from the realities of place – its resources, ecologies, skills and communities. Across housing, civic buildings and experimental structures, the book traces projects from the UK, Europe, Asia and beyond. Stone, timber and earth reappear as raw material for new thinking. Old skills meet new tools. Craft meets digital systems. Collaboration reshapes construction.