What is a Bio-Material
Bio-materials, as the name suggests, are materials derived from living organisms. This includes plants, animals and fungi. The most common Biodegradable material used in architecture is natural wood sourced from trees. Some other common bio-materials are cork, hemp, and cane.
Apart from architectural expressions curated and designed to be executed, biomaterials have been used consistently in various places as vernacular architecture, which is born out of locally available materials and existing ecosystems that allow inhabitants to engage in and lead a symbiotic relationship. A great example of this is living root bridges, commonly found in Meghalaya. Where architecture is formed out of the ficus plant, like suspension bridges, they span across rivers.
Biomaterials come with a plethora of benefits for individuals living and building with them, as well as being benign to the environment. Yet biomaterials as a resource require maintenance, care, and replacement; these materials are not meant to last forever. And so, in the pursuit of permanence, Architecture pivoted towards materials like stone, eventually leading to the invention of Portland cement by the Romans and the large-scale production of glass and steel in the 18th century, a result of the Industrial Revolution. Today we have heavily engineered materials, that are chemically synthesised that include engineered wood, concretes, different metals, plastics and glass, that provide permanence and strength against environmental forces. So why is there a need to bring back biomaterials?
Problems with the existing construction materials
The materials used in prominence today, though manage to extend the life span of a building to over 50 years at the very least, have also revealed problems and dangers to the environment. The construction sector is responsible for 37% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Leading to increased carbonisation and pollution globally. The increasing need for infrastructure in the world has also led to over extraction of resources needed to process construction materials through excessive mining and treatments depleting natural resources and polluting rivers and soil with harmful by-products that result from the extraction.
From an economic standpoint, this can be experienced through the increasing prices of materials, especially riverbed sand. Ecologically, it can be seen as the drastic change in landforms and can be studied in the Anthropocene.
Impermanence
Existing construction materials have always focused on the aspect that their materials provide the maximum return on investment over the life span of the building. But, in our pursuit of permanence we have built dense dwellings and spaces at an alarming rate where the supply has surpassed the demand in the developed world. This problem of over-building also begins to question to what degree does one chase permanence. Who decides which building is meant to be permanent and which is worthy of being torn down?
While addressing building demolitions, it is also important to note that the rubble and debris generated is not biodegradable and increases the load on landfills, the harsh chemicals present in these materials also often leach into the soil polluting ground water and potable water bodies in the long run as well. And hence it is essential that biomaterials are considered as alternatives as we slowly wean off our dependence on traditional building materials.
The symbiotic innovation
Apart from the widely known biomaterials mentioned at the beginning of the article, such as wood and cork, biological systems have been harvested in recent years to replace traditional materials. This can be seen in the use of mycelium, the root structure of fungi, to cast bricks and modules of custom shape that demonstrate promising mechanical strength, water resistance, and are completely biodegradable.
Algae is also being harvested as a source of clean energy through biofuel and can be seen in action in the Solar Leaf project by Arup and multiple projects by Ecologic Studio. There are many more scenarios where a symbiotic relationship between architecture and living ecologies is explored in an attempt to reduce environmental stressors while producing architecture that is durable and healthy to inhabit.
The shift to biomaterials is necessary and is a pressing need in our times. It embodies the true nature of sustainable practices where buildings explore the ability to not just give back to the environment by being net-zero buildings but also heal the environement they reside in by being inspired and borrowing from existing biological systems. This will thereby slowly reduce the load on intrinsically non-renewable materials in the near future.
Sources:
Calzoni, I. (2023) What Are Biomaterials in Architecture? ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/987658/what-are-biomaterials-in-architecture (Accessed: 22 April 2025).
Vallangi, N. (2021) The Ingenious Living Bridges of India. BBC Future. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211117-how-indias-living-bridges-could-transform-architecture (Accessed: 22 April 2025).
United Nations Environment Programme (2023) Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future. Nairobi: UNEP. Available at: https://www.unep.org/resources/report/building-materials-and-climate-constructing-new-future (Accessed: 22 April 2025).
Rethinking The Future (2025) Biomaterials in Architecture. Available at: https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/architectural-community/a13967-biomaterials-in-architecture/ (Accessed: 22 April 2025).
