MATERIAL PYRAMID

The Construction Material Pyramid comes from CINARK at the Royal Danish Academy, a research and education centre collecting and sharing information on sustainable architecture.

The focus is on industrial fabrication and building processes, business organisation and crucially collaboration which is a common and pressing theme in any discussion of how we do more with less and make effective impacts; no surprise then that they have made this useful tool freely available.

It’s not intended for detailed analysis, instead it gives a quick sustainability overview of a building’s make-up by comparing CO2 footprints and environmental impacts between and across materials and categories.

Really useful as a place to start, based on the Danish food pyramid which is a similarly clear graphic reminding us that wonky veg are better for person and planet than factory-farmed chicken.

CINARK Centre for Industrialised Architecture
The Construction Material Pyramid Build Better