Material Health: Design Frontiers

The UN identifies chemical usage as a particular global concern, destructive to land, water and air, negatively affecting both human health and environmental wellbeing. Carbon pollution from production of building materials contributes to an estimated 11% of all global emissions. The challenges of growing populations and demands for extensive new building and infrastructure exert exponential pressure on a planet with limited resources, a wildly ballooning amount of rubbish and a disturbing imbalance between natural and human forces. For design professionals, the material discussion is inescapable, as architectural and design communities are well positioned to embrace and front solutions for human and planetary health threats.

Exploring critical topics of material health in this era of climate crisis, Material Health argues that there is an urgent need for new paths and practices in architecture and design in order to create healthier futures for everyone. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, it offers an overview of how design is taught and shapes our future, and how this could be radically changed through a deeper understanding of the fundamental issues threatening our planet and human species.

The book first sets out two main themes that situate the work being undertaken in the field of material health: the importance of old and new indigenous understandings of our planet; and the climate crisis. Six thematic chapters follow, which explore the intersectional and complex nature of material health, setting out examples of material health and innovative, sustainable materials and their uses. The contributors grapple with new and long-sustained challenges in socially engaged research and practice, as well as critically reflecting on necessary changes to architectural and interior design education and practice. The book concludes by documenting exhibitions and installations which highlight material health exploration.

The Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design is a leading research center dedicated to a world in which people’s health is placed at the center of all design decisions. It raises awareness about toxic chemicals in building products and creates resources for the next generation of designers and architects to make healthier places for all people to live.