THE PLACE OF THE MATERIAL

Abstract

The UN predicts that by 2060, the use of primary resources will double, and that steel and cement will bear the most responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. In this context of planetary depletion and overconsumption, defining the place of the material–that is, where and how much to allocate–as part of the design and manufacturing process of the built environment takes on a new and urgent relevance. This essay discusses the place of the material, specifically that of concrete–as one of the most widespread and polluting materials–from two historical perspectives, the formal and the economic; and a future perspective, the ecological one. Over the last century, while the first two have dominated design decisions and the formation of what we know as the ‘construction industry’, the imminent collapse of the environment compels us to rethink the relationship between technique, material, and design through the incorporation of the ecological variable as a key to answering that initial question.