Resources
DOWNLOAD a database template to start your own journey to using more bio-based materials in practice. Modify as needed!
Bio-Based Materials
“Bio-Based” Materials are wholly or partly derived from biomass; such as plants, trees or animals. The biobass can have undergone physical, chemical, or biological treatment.
Examples of bio-based materials being researched now:
Algae
Agave
Banana Fibre
Banana Leaves
Cactus Fiber
Cassava Starch
Citrus Peel Extracts
Coffee Grounds
Cotton
Corn Cob
Coconut Shells
Date Palm Fiber
Flax
Grass
Hemp
Jute
Kenaf
Luffa
Leather
Mycelium
Oyster Shell
Olive Pomace
Peanut Shells
Pine Resin
Rice Husk
Seaweed
Straw
Sorghum Stalks
Sugarcane Bagasse
Sunflower Husks
Soybean
Shellfish
Water Hyacinth
Wheat
Wool
Wood
Organizations + Businesses
Improving markets and organizational networking is key to the increase of research & development for more and new bio-based material .
Databases, businesses, government initiatives + more.
Disclaimer: None of these orgs/businesses listed below are affiliated with this research directly and have been listed here simply as a source of inquiry.
DATABASES & TOOLS
Biobased Database Biobased Materials
Material Cultures
Healthy Materials Lab
HPD Public Repository Materials Assemble
BioSourced Materials District
Material Driven Materiom
Material Baselines Transmaterial
Embodied Carbon Footprint Database
STANDARDS & CERTIFICATIONS
Cradle to Cradle Certified
Energy.Gov
BUSINESSES PRODUCING PRODUCTS
ArborWood Co.
Tarkett Mohawk Group
BioPreferred Erthly
Ecovative Design
Timber Block ModCell
Bentley Mills
Shaw Contract Carnegie Fabrics
TorZo Surfaces Paper Stone Products
EcoPoxy AOBA Line
Cork Fabrics Dualmond Kollamat
Grown.Bio Bostik Mykor Foam
Laminated Blanks Greensulate
Bibliography
A tentative starting place to be continued and expanded.
Materials
Achal, Varenyam, and Chee Seong Chin. Building
Materials for Sustainable and Ecological Environment. Springer Nature, 2021.
Andrew.Himes. “2023 CLF North American Material Baselines Report.” Carbon Leadership Forum, February 26, 2024. https://carbonleadershipforum.org/clf-material-baselines-2023/.
Bbsr, Ökobau.Dat Im. “ÖKOBAUDAT.” ÖKOBAU.DAT Im BBSR, n.d. https://www.oekobaudat.de/en.html.
BUILDERS FOR CLIMATE ACTION. “BEAM Estimator,” n.d. https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/beam-estimator.html.
Ashby, Michael F. Materials and Sustainable Development. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2015.
Berge, Bjørn. The Ecology of Building Materials. Routledge, 2009.
Catalano, Chiara, Mihaela Meslec, Jules Boileau, Riccardo Guarino, Isabella Aurich, Nathalie Baumann, Frédéric Chartier, et al. “Smart Sustainable Cities of the New Millennium: Towards Design for Nature.” Circular Economy and Sustainability/Circular Economy and Sustainability 1, no. 3 (August 25, 2021): 1053–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00100-6.
Chapman, Jonathan. Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Product Design. Routledge, 2017.
Circular Ecology. “Embodied Carbon Footprint Database - Circular Ecology,” March 13, 2024. http://circularecology.com/embodied-carbon-footprint-database.html#.W1dJPY6LSPQ.
Fletcher, Kate, and Mathilda Tham. Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion. Routledge, 2014.
Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design. “Forging a Post Petroleum World: Biobased, Biofabricated, Biomaterial, What’s the Difference?” Healthy Materials Lab, October 31, 2022. https://healthymaterialslab.org/blog/bio-definitions?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA0PuuBhBsEiwAS7fsNS6T4uF8FlmbbbpnG1sWEjsZS5QlVoGYXdGfsuIHqzzVLn4c1BIt4BoCUccQAvD_BwE.
Hillebrandt, Annette, Petra Riegler-Floors, Anja Rosen, and Johanna-Katharina Seggewies. Manual of Recycling: Buildings as Sources of Materials. Detail, 2019.
Karana, Elvin, D. R. L. M. Blauwhoff, Erik-Jan Hultink, and Serena Camere. “When the Material Grows: A Case Study on Designing (With) Mycelium-Based Materials.” International Journal of Design 12, no. 2 (August 1, 2018): 119–36. https://pure.tudelft.nl/ws/files/53910160/2918_10991_5_PB.pdf.
Kula, Daniel, and Élodie Ternaux. Materiology: The Creative Industry’s Guide to Materials and Technologies. Walter de Gruyter, 2013.
Material Pathways. “Material Pathways - Narrating Materials in Design for Sustainability,” October 26, 2020. https://www.materialpathways.dk/.
Ruby, Ilka, and Andreas Ruby. The Materials Book, 2020.
Solanki, Seetal. Why Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World. National Geographic Books, 2018.
Ternaux, Elodie, and MatériO. Material World 3: Innovative Materials for Architecture and Design. Birkhaüser, 2011.
Wastiels, Lisa, and Ine Wouters. “Material Considerations in Architectural Design: A Study of the Aspects Identified by Architects for Selecting Materials.” Conference: Proceedings of DRS 2008, August 6, 2009. https://shura.shu.ac.uk/511/1/fulltext.pdf.
Were, Graeme. How Materials Matter: Design, Innovation and Materiality in the Pacific. Berghahn Books, 2019.
Sustainability
Anink, David, Chiel Boonstra, and John Mak. Handbook of Sustainable Building: An Environmental Preference Method for Selection of Materials for Use in Construction and Refurbishment. Earthscan Publications, 1996.
“Approaches to Sustainable Design,” n.d. https://www.sustainabledesigncards.dk/.
Benyus, Janine M. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Harper Collins, 2009.
Cairns, Stephen, and Jane M Jacobs. Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture. MIT Press, 2017.
Lewis, Paul, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis. Manual of Biogenic House Sections: Materials and Carbon. Oro Editions, 2022.
McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. North Point Press, 2010.
Robèrt, Karl-Henrik. The Natural Step: A Framework for Achieving Sustainability in Our Organizations. Critical Press, 1997. The Natural Step
Steen, B. and Ryding, S.-O. “The EPS Enviro-Accounting Method.” AFR Report 11. Swedish Waste Research Council. 1993.
Walker, Stuart, and Jacques Giard. The Handbook of Design for Sustainability. A&C Black, 2013.
“Why the Built Environment – Architecture 2030,” n.d. https://www.architecture2030.org/why-the-built-environment/.
Haraway, Donna. “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin.” Environmental Humanities 6, no. 1 (May 1, 2015): 159–65. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3615934.
Theory & Design
“AIA Framework for Design Excellence,” n.d. https://www.aia.org/design-excellence/aia-framework-design-excellence.
Braae, Ellen, and Henriette Steiner. Routledge Research Companion to Landscape Architecture. Routledge, 2018.
Correa, Isabel. “Human-Nature Entanglements — Isabel Correa.” Isabel Correa, July 29, 2022. https://mariaisabelcorrea.com/blog-1/human-nature-entanglements.
Daalhuizen, Jaap. “Method Usage in Design : How methods function as mental tools for designers.” (PhD Dissertation). Delft University of Technology., March 14, 2014. https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:4ac01165-c6b5-4057-a2fe-3418907f251e.
Elsacker, Elise Vanden. "Mycelium matters - an interdisciplinary exploration of the fabrication and properties of mycelium-based materials." VUBPress. (2021).
Hillis, Danny. “The Enlightenment is Dead, Long Live the Entanglement.” Journal of Design and Science., February 23, 2016. https://doi.org/10.21428/1a042043.
Harman, Graham. Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. Penguin UK, 2018.
Hodder, Ian. “The Entanglements of Humans and Things: A Long-Term View.” New literary history 45, no. 1 (2014): 19–36.
Hodder, Ian. Entangled : An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things. Chichester, West Sussex ; Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
Karana, Elvin, Bahareh Barati, Valentina Rognoli, and Anouk Zeeuw Van Der Laan. “Material Driven Design (MDD): A Method to Design for Material Experiences.” International Journal of Design 9, no. 2 (August 31, 2015): 35–54. http://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:7359026d-57f5-4f63-9835-126c5d23baed/?collection=research.
Kirschner, Roman, and Karmen Franinović. “INTERACTING IN ENTANGLED ENVIRONMENTS.” In De Gruyter eBooks, 249–60, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783035622751-014.
Kuo,F.E. "Bridging The Gap: How Scientists Can Make A Difference." in Bechtel, Robert B., and Arza Churchman. Handbook of Environmental Psychology, 2002. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA57440481.
Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. OUP Oxford, 2007.
Morton, Timothy. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World. Posthumanities, 2013.
Nakamura, Kyoko, and Yukio Pegio Gunji. “Entanglement of Art Coefficient, or Creativity.” Foundations of science 25, no. 1 (2020): 247–257.
Oxman, Neri. “Age of Entanglement.” Journal of Design and Science, January 13, 2016. https://doi.org/10.21428/7e0583ad.
Pedgley, Owain, Valentina Rognoli, and Elvin Karana. “Materials Experience as a Foundation for Materials and Design Education.” International Journal of Technology and Design Education 26, no. 4 (August 27, 2015): 613–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-015-9327-y.
Pinxit, Vaughn. “Navigating the Methodology of an Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practice with Conscious Bridging.” International Journal of Art and Design Education 38, no. 2 (September 23, 2018): 416–29.https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12199.
Plowright, Philip D. Revealing Architectural Design: Methods, Frameworks and Tools. Routledge, 2014.
Prominski, Martin. “Designing Landscapes of Entanglement.” In Routledge eBooks, 171–82, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315613116-17.
Rezaei, Mahmud. Reviewing Design Process Theories: Discourses in Architecture, Urban Design and Planning Theories. Springer Nature, 2020.
Van Boeijen, Annemiek, Jaap Daalhuizen, Roos Van Der Schoor, and Jelle Zijlstra. Delft Design Guide: Design Strategies and Methods. Bis Pub, 2014.
Westerlund, Bo, and Elizabeth Sanders. “Experiencing, Exploring and Experimenting in and With Co-Design Spaces.” Nordic Design Research Conference, May 29, 2011. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2011.021.