Materials Library: Morris + Co ADC

Founded by Joe Morris in 2018, Morris+Company is a 61-strong practice based in London and Copenhagen. Adopting a collaborative, knowledge-based approach, the architect has won critical acclaim for its materially-rich and contextually-sensitive projects that span a range of architectural typologies, including commercial office, education and housing across both public and private sectors.

Brick has long been synonymous with the practice’s work. But this is changing as the company has developed its focus on sustainability, the circular economy, and a move to modern methods of construction (MMC). Central to this shift is a revitalised and comprehensively reimagined materials library – as director and sustainability lead David Storring, and architectural assistant Amelia Brown explain.

How is the materials library organised?

David Storring Historically, the library has developed organically and been mainly centred around projects. However, we’ve been shifting our thinking in terms of sustainability and brought LSA student Amelia on board who is providing dedicated research into the environmental credentials of different materials, as well as ways of cataloguing them and disseminating the information to the wider practice.

What’s driven this change of direction?

David Storring We’ve been struggling with the complexity and multi-layered nature of sustainability within the construction industry and aspects of ‘greenwash’ that permeate it. Until now, embodied carbon has been our primary focus, but we wanted to better understand other environmental factors. For example, how much recycled content can we bring to projects? What new materials are available? How can MMC drive better performance? What happens at the end of material life, can it be reused? There’s a big shift going on right now.

Is this shift occurring in practice or across the wider industry?

David Storring I would say both. The industry is shifting fast, whether it be decarbonising manufacturing processes or prioritising the circular economy. We’ve also shifted our way of thinking, and now want our design teams to report on the material carbon they’re using in every single design review. The practice is also keen not to fall back on the materials that its used in the past; we want to be ahead of the curve, as you understand architecture takes a long time to realise.

So how do you measure and log environmental performance for the materials in the library? 

Amelia Brown We’ve created a systematic labelling system for all materials. Each product is given a classification as it’s catalogued, and we have a database that documents all the information, so architects can compare and contrast different products. The labels themselves cover a range of key data, including potential applications for the material, where it’s been sourced and processed, its recycled content, use of renewables, lifespan, and end-of-life opportunities.

Where do you get the environmental data from?

Amelia Brown Most of it comes from EPDs. Saying that, some of the newer manufacturers don’t have the resources to produce EPDs, so we ask for as much information as possible.

That sounds like a long process. How do you prioritise which materials to explore?

Amelia Brown We’ve started with a new section in the library that houses all the recently acquired environmentally-focused materials.

David Storring This very much ties into the new technologies and manufacturing processes that are coming online. We haven’t gone through everything in the library, because this represents antiquated ideas, particularly where brick is concerned. If you look at the back wall, you can see how we’ve shifted to precast concrete in recent years. We’re keen to move forward rather than look back.

Along with the metrics Amelia mentioned earlier, each label we assign to a material sample has a tree symbol at the top, coloured red, amber or green, depending on the product’s overall environmental performance. It’s a way of applying an overlay to what we should and shouldn’t be specifying. Product EPDs can be 20- to 30-pages long, so it’s quite hard for design teams working at pace to digest. This provides a handy shortcut. We’ve also investigated EPDs to see where the knowledge gaps are, not related to EPDs but where manufacturers make claims using loose language around ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ credentials.

At what point do materials become a focus on your projects? 

David Storring From the outset I would say. Over the last 18 years, much of the practice’s work has been in London, which has naturally led us to use brick, particularly for small and medium-sized projects. Recently, we’ve taken a deep dive into the embodied carbon of brick, which has made us rethink our approach. This coincides with a practice shift to designing large-scale projects which has necessitated a move to the use of more contemporary construction methodology.

So, from this perspective, we’ve had to challenge our use of hand-laid brick, which is synonymous with the practice’s past work. This has guided us towards the use of precast concrete as a lower-carbon alternative. Precast can be panelised and negates the fire concerns with buildings at height. That’s not to say that precast concrete is the silver bullet to our climate change problems – and things are changing rapidly – but at this current moment with the options available to us in the market this seems to us to be the best approach.

Amelia Brown Brick is a high-carbon product, and in terms of MMC you’re using half a brick bonded to precast concrete, which is the worst of both worlds. Depending on the quantity of recycled content and cement alternatives, concrete can provide a 50 per cent saving in carbon over brick.

So how does a move to precast concrete work contextually when it comes to building in London?

David Storring We often deal with difficult sites, heritage constraints and listed buildings, so the instant reaction from planners is: it must be made from brick. But as I mentioned before, this doesn’t work with MMC from an environmental perspective. The practice has worked with façade engineer EOC to develop low-carbon precast concrete façades that meet exacting contextual responses through the use of form, colour and texture.

A good example is Caste and Fitzroy, a seven-storey, commercially-led, mixed-use development, located in a conservation area in central London. Here, we’re employing a warm reddish-pink coloured precast concrete facade with prominent scalloped motifs intended to evoke the nearby Victorian context. Textured spandrels – achieved by varying the amount of aggregate that is exposed complement the surrounding built heritage. Inside, much of the building will be finished in timber. The biggest challenge for a building of this scale is fire, so the decision to use concrete is being driven by safety as well as embodied carbon. We also think that it’s an incredibly beautiful material, when treated carefully with attention given to the detailing, colour and texture.

Which companies are you working with to further develop your concrete expertise? 

Amelia Brown We’re working with Techcrete, Laing O’Rourke and EOC to name a few. For the Castle and Fitzroy project we visited Laing O’Rourke’s workshop factory to learn more about precast façade production in terms of moulds, concrete pouring and curing, as well as surface finishing. We then applied these techniques at small scale, in our model shop, during the design development phase. Instead of concrete, we used plaster of Paris mixed with fish tank gravel for the aggregate. Upon drying, we sanded the façade elements revealing the aggregates – as you would with concrete. This allowed us to test the façade bays and other precast components. It’s a good way of experimenting with tactility and colour, as well as showing the client and planning officers how the finished façade will look.

David Storring I think it’s important to say that the materials library and workshop are located next door to each other from a research and learning perspective. At the moment, we’re exploring the limits of precast concrete detailing and texture, and how different components come together when they are replicated at full scale. The samples displayed along the back wall of the library represent three-to-four years of exploration into precast concrete, with the items colour coded from white and grey on the left hand side, through to greens, pinks and reds on the right.

You will notice that some of the samples are heavily polished, which naturally incurs a cost; so, it’s about knowing when to use a particular process in order to make the largest visual impact. At ground level for example, you might spend more time and energy grinding back the façade panels to form a smooth surface to reveal the inner ‘cake mix’ of the aggregates. Higher up the façade, it becomes more about shadow-making than surface finishing, which obviously has less impact the further away it is from the ground.

How are London planners reacting to precast concrete rather than brick façades?

David Storring In the case of the Castle and Fitzroy project, there was a realisation that perhaps brick is not the right answer in a climate crisis. By using the detailed façade models in meetings, the planners were able to see that there was an opportunity to add a layer of richness in relation to the existing heritage, as well as provide a fire-safe, climate-aware, long-life, loose-fit building solution.

Considering how fast things are changing from an environmental perspective, how do you keep up with the latest developments in materials and construction techniques?     

David Storring In general we approach manufacturers, attend industry events and shows, as well as conduct online research. I also co-run the Third Year Design Technology course at the Bartlett, so I’m constantly having conversations with innovators and getting specialist speakers to lecture the students.

We’ve talked about embodied carbon, but how important do you think issues relating to reuse and recyclability are when it comes to material selection?

David Storring We’re treating our office as a test bed with regards to the circular economy. The lighting, for example, came from a commercial project. Unwanted luminaires from the fit-out were returned to the manufacturer – rather than being skipped – so we were able to purchase them at a competitive price. Another example is the staircase, which is designed to be fully demountable and reconfigurable. Wherever we’ve had to use new materials we’ve chosen timber, which is low carbon and regenerative.

Our modular timber partition system is based on and incorporates glass units from the existing partitioning we inherited with the building. The new system can be configured to form storage units, display cases, and meeting room walls among other items. We’ve also used terracotta tile ‘seconds’ to clad the bar in our restaurant and events space – products that would otherwise have been discarded. The biggest challenge is how to apply this methodology to projects where we are not the client, particularly in light of material availability. Time will tell, but we’re hoping that what we’ve done with our office will inspire clients to adopt the same approach as us.

Besides precast concrete, what other materials are of interest to the practice at the moment?

David Storring We’re really enjoying working with fibre-cement board on Warehouse Living – a live-work scheme in north London. It’s a fairly industrial product, but here it will form part of a super-thin, lightweight rainscreen cladding system. This not only has cost benefits but will also ensure low levels of carbon (around 9kgCO2/m2), which is less than a third of brick and metal façade equivalents. A combination of sinusoidal and grooved panels will provide surface articulation in terms texture and light and shade.

Do you review the library regularly, and how do you reduce waste?

David Storring Now that we’ve got this new material library space, we’re keen that the majority of the items are on display rather than in boxes. This makes the resource easier to use and more inspirational, while hopefully avoiding duplication of existing samples by project teams.

Amelia Brown The idea of bringing materials into the library that are not project specific, particularly innovative ones, is new to us and may require tweaking in the future. But our thinking is to keep ahead of the curve in terms of current and future thinking on sustainability and the environment. Fortunately, more and more suppliers are willing to take back samples that are no longer needed. The ones that don’t should be called out. The digital catalogue probably helps with waste as this allows architects to quickly search and find whatever they are looking for, rather than re-ordering items.

Do you run CPDs?

David Storring We do have manufactures give CDP’s, but we prefer to look at materials in general, rather than specific products which may come with a ‘hard sell’ from the manufacturer giving the presentation. I think this approach is richer and more beneficial for our project teams. One of our key aims is to disseminate the in-depth knowledge we’ve learnt about the innovative new materials that are coming into the library and are now on display. This will hopefully inspire project teams and give them a good knowledge base from which to work.