By Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki & David J. Lewis

Recognising that buildings are a major contributor to global warming and the critical role of embodied versus operational carbon, this book focuses on houses built from materials that either sequester carbon (plants), use materials with very low embodied carbon (earth and stone), or reuse substantial amounts of existing materials. Organised by those materials (wood, bamboo, straw, hemp, cork, earth, brick, stone and re-use), and incorporating life cycle diagrams demonstrating how the raw material is processed into building components, this title shows how the unique properties of each material can transform the ways architects conceive the sections of houses. Building on the techniques of the Manual of Section, this publication is comprised of newly generated cross-sectional drawings of 55 recent modestly sized houses from around the world, making legible the tectonics and materials used in their construction. Drawing connections between the architecture of the house, environmental systems and material economies, the book seeks to change how we build now and for the future.