Material Matters

g rant g IB son is a UK-based design, craft and architecture writer and podcaster. In 2019 he launched the award-winning podcast MAteriAl MAtterS

With grAnt gibSon, which was transformed into a fair at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, in September 2022 during London Design Festival. The show is returning to the same venue from 20-23 September 2023. materIaLmatters.DesIgn totomoxtLe smILe pLastIcs hemp engIneereD tImBer

Totomoxtle is a beautiful product with a fascinating story from designer Fernando Laposse. Essentially, Laposse has revived the agricultural economy of Tonahuixtla, a small village in the southwest of Mexico. More recently, its fields had been decimated by modern corn farming methods, so Laposse encouraged the local community to revert to their old techniques, planting traditional (and very colourful) varieties of the crop. Subsequently, the husks are used to create this extraordinary veneer. It’s a narrative that involves macroeconomics, heritage, food culture and design.

This isn’t so much a single material, more a process. I first came across this recycled plastic in the mid-1990s, when it was created by the designer and educator, Jane Atfield, for her renowned RCP2 chair. It was completely revolutionary at the time. In 2014, the company that manufactured the material was revived by Rosalie McMillan and Adam Fairweather. The pair take single-use plastics, and other materials traditionally classed as waste, and transform them into extraordinarily eye-catching, large scale, solid surface panels. Once again, it’s about changing the perception of the value of the stuff that surrounds us.

Hemp is an extraordinary plant which can be used for an array of things: from bread to buildings, via clothing, car interiors, paint, paper, biofuel and animal bedding. Not only that, but it’s environmentally friendly, sequestering carbon, replenishing the soil and killing weeds without the need for chemicals. And potentially it’s also a zero-waste crop, meaning the whole thing can be used. Last, but by no means least, it can be sown to remediate contaminated land. I’m a little obsessed with it, truth be told.

I recently found myself tapping away at a laptop in The Office Group’s Black & White building, designed by Waugh Thistleton and Daytrip, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The Shoreditch-based coworking space is made from a beech LVL frame with CLT slabs. Mass timber products aren’t the panacea to the construction industry’s issues with sustainability – as the Material Cultures collective points out in its recent book, Material Reform, a huge volume of timber is required to create a building, meaning that if the whole industry adopted the material, supplies would quickly come under pressure. However, it is going to be a hugely important part of any future mix.