48: building materials

on site review 48 building materials

the stuff buildings are made of

Architecture presents its material face to the world, its material structure to itself. In this issue we have challenges to this: materials can be ancient, convenient, inappropriate, problematic, surprising, apt. From traditional to innovative, from new to old, there are historical shifts along such trajectories that relate to technology, conflict, exploration, revision, identity, manufacturing and refinement capacities. Skill sets, scarcity of raw materials, or surplus materials — all these are unpredictable, and yet, somehow, architecture responds.

front and back cover who we are

Nascent building materials: lumber the fine print Introduction and contents

1,60 2 3

very hard materials

Sheila Ayearst Local Works Francesco Martire David Murray

Self-healing concrete Culture of construction Material vestiges: concrete formwork River rocks and field stones: prairie resources

4 8

10 14

building systems

Jim Moses Tegan Moore

Big Easy Redux: building strategies When the light thing becomes heavy: air and foam

20 26

wood

Rafael Gomez-Moriana Lisa Rapoport

Form follows material: CMT Wood shingles

28 32

material research

George Amabile Olive Lazarus Chad Connery and Selina Tran

Building materials: three poems Thatch Root logics

38 40 47

deep surfaces

Alisha Kapoor and Diana Guo

Soft matter

50

moving on

new call for articles , on site 49

Shorelines

51

Spring 2026

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