A multi-material future: how to design with a palette of biomaterials

Timber is a robust, low-carbon building material that has been used for centuries. It’s not surprising that designers who use timber are often also interested in other biomaterials – such as hemp, bamboo or rammed earth. We hear from three ingenious designers who have found that timber works very well alongside different nature-based building materials. 

The 2026 Wood Awards Live exhibition recently hosted a discussion from three designers who have employed a mix-and-match approach to biomaterials on very different projects. Kirsten Haggart (Director, Waugh Thistleton) chaired a panel featuring Alex Lynes (Associate Director, Webb Yates), Cristina Monteiro (Founding Co-Director, DK-CM architects) and Finbar Charleson (Architect & Research Lead, dRMM architects).

Make sure you do your homework

One thing that was immediately clear was the importance of advance preparation – especially if it’s a biomaterial that is new to you. “A materials study greatly influenced the form and structure of Rammed Earth House,” said Alex Lynes, structural engineer.

Rammed Earth House is built from Douglas fir, oak and – as the name suggests – rammed earth. Its walls are formed from clay excavated on site, demolition aggregate from former outbuildings and locally quarried limestone gravel: it contains no cement. “There was a lot of testing with a soil specialist,” Alex told us. “We used the majority of the earth from onsite, but the testing showed us we did need to bring in some clays from elsewhere.”

Architect Cristina Monteiro explained how Camber Sands Welcome Centre hugely benefited from early materials auditing (by Local Works Studio). This was a key first step in the building’s design. A pre-demolition audit identified what could be re-used in the transformation of this former beachside toilet block into a new community asset.

Cristina modestly describes the new Welcome Centre as “somewhere in between a shed and a town hall”: it now houses a café, community hire space, facilities for the RNLI, council amenities and public toilets. It has been carefully designed to respond to its coastal setting, showing that reused and natural materials can be robust enough to withstand its seaside environment.

Be as flexible as you can

One lesson Alex learned was not to be too purist. “Our approach was ‘Let’s make what we can from rammed earth, and substitute in complementary materials where necessary.”

As with any project, the need to work to a budget and programme makes flexibility a must.

“Camber Sands was for a local authority, and so they had their own funding deadlines, which were a factor,” Cristina explains. “Plus there was the need to complete before the start of the summer tourist season.”

While she would have loved to source the entirety of the materials hyper-locally, these factors required them to look a little further afield for some of the wood. On that front, Devon-based timber suppliers and specialist subcontractors Buckland Timber proved to be an invaluable part of the project team.

As Kirsten Haggart pointed out, we are doing well if we can source the majority of materials from the UK; and shouldn’t punish ourselves with a restrictive idea of the “local” or the “nearby”.

A supply-led approach to design?

To design based on what is available is about as flexible as design gets. That’s the agile, adaptable approach Finbar Charleson suggested. “We need conversations across the supply chain,” he said. “If you spoke to a local forester, for example, and found out what they had then your design could be informed by what they could provide.”

This, as he pointed out, goes hand in hand with the UK’s need to plant and use more diverse tree species, alongside other biomaterials. Changes to the UK climate require a proactive attitude towards biodiversity. “The UK lags so far behind other countries in terms of forestry,” Finbar said. “There’s a real opportunity here to build a resilient new UK bioeconomy.”

And designers can play a key role in this, by thinking beyond the go-to species. This is shown in the project Finbar introduced, Building from Forests. It is research he undertook together with academic and industry partners for Forestry England, which explores the potential of underutilised UK timber species in construction.

One application he mentioned is an engineered hardwood ‘knuckle’ joint. By drawing on the strength of hardwood, the knuckle removes the need for metal connectors and allows a slimmer overall frame.

Good design principles are universal

Designers needn’t feel intimidated by materials that might seem alien to them.

“Timber is the primary material in Rammed Earth House,” Alex told us. “But the same simple approach lies behind all the materials: well-crafted details in a holistic design. The detailing of how things connect is important irrespective of the material.

“We didn’t want to use cement in the binder for render,” he continues. “This meant larger overhangs – it affects the design, but it’s an opportunity rather than a constraint.”

You can read more about all the projects mentioned above by visiting the Wood Awards 2026 shortlist page – where you can also find out about the other contenders for the Wood Awards.