Local materials
Earth, timber, bamboo, lime, stone, and agricultural residue.
Focus — Housing, Materials & the Built Environment — Regenerative building materials
REGENERATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve the materials buildings are made from for the builders and households who will use the material.
Why this area
REGENERATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS
IN CONTEXT.
Materials decide the cost, comfort, and footprint of a building. Ideas qualify when the material is tested against the climate it will stand in and produced within reach of the site.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Low-carbon substitution
Alternatives to cement and fired brick where they hold up.
Testing & standards
Evidence that the material performs and can be approved.
Production
Making the material near where it will be used.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A REGENERATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where the materials buildings are made from fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — strength, durability, cost per unit, or embodied carbon.
- Explains what the builders and households who will use the material do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of the materials buildings are made from in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier alternative-material projects did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the builders and households who will use the material, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — units produced, buildings built, or test panels.
- A stated measure of success — strength, durability, cost per unit, or embodied carbon.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves cost, comfort, and durability of buildings for the builders and households who will use the material.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named materials producer, builders' group, or standards body able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of the materials buildings are made from in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the builders and households who will use the material or the materials producer, builders' group, or standards body.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about regenerative building materials with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
REGENERATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about the materials buildings are made from that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.