This submission asks, should buildings be made out of materials designed to outlive their useful life? Should we return to traditional structures and techniques that are low cost but labour intensive with minimal environmental impact? How can we look to nature to lead innovation in the construction industry and create a healthier and more sustainable built environment? 

This sculpture comprises three shelters made from mycelium, Portland stone and cob. Foregrounding material culture, the development and exhibition of this installation is an innovative way to bring together considerations around sustainable materials with current concerns connected to immigration, homelessness and precarity. 

Creating a cross-cultural dialogue through time and space between architectural construction techniques old and new, it is designed to catalyse conversation, intersecting the future of the built environment, home, community and culture. Of specific interest is the human dimension of material sustainability and the built environment - building as dwelling - and how sculpture, as an artform,  can tease out the relationships between seemingly disparate themes.

Artist: Lucy Tomlins, with Oksana Bondar (mycelium), Michael Gregory (digital sculpt/design), Luke Twigger (mould-making), Adeline Wartner (stonemason).

Partners: Biohm, Building Crafts College, Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre

Supporters: Arts Council England, ERDF, The Radcliffe Trust

*Title is a reference to Mario Merz ‘Igloo, Do We Go Around Houses, or Do Houses Go Around Us?’, 1985
Image Credit: Pangaea Sculptors' Centre, courtesy of the artist