Materials for a Healthy, Ecological and Sustainable Built Environment

Introduction

Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Brenda Vale and Emina Kristina Petrović Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

The designing and making of built environments requires professionals to have considerable knowledge of building materials. Traditionally, this has included cost and how materials perform over time, including ease of maintenance. What has changed is that this knowledge now needs to expand to include consideration of the impacts materials have on ecosystems, the global climate, the health of people, as well as ethical considerations, such as whether exploitation occurred in producing the material. Broadly, all these issues are part of what “sustainability” might mean in relation to the design of the built ...