On the origins of buildings: A social-ecological network approach to contemporary bioregional architectures of American earth, Norwegian timber & Balinese bamboo

Expanding human populations and urbanisation pose immense, imminent demand for the construction of new buildings and infrastructure. Meanwhile, major technological, economic, and socio-cultural changes must be made to mitigate and adapt to the negative effects of climate change. Whereas globalised production of cement, steel, and other dominant mineral-based building materials is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, circular bioregional value chains hold potential to transform the materialisation of the built environment into an impactful climate solution. A circular bioeconomy is recognised as more complex than a linear fossil economy, yet the ways biospheric resources are owned, distributed, managed, processed, and embedded in material culture also offer opportunities beyond decarbonisation. However, appropriate methods for assessing the interdependent and transdisciplinary issues associated with their multidimensional entanglements are lacking. Thus, this thesis examines the relevance of a social-ecological network (SEN) approach. Results indicate SENs are increasingly useful tools for representing and analysing compound relationships between ecological and social systems for the management of ecosystem services. Still, applications to bioregional architectural production remain scarce. To address this knowledge gap, a systematic literature review marks the starting point for practical applications of basic SEN methods to specific, diversely exemplary collections of case study bioregional buildings, and their corresponding value chains, informed by extensive fieldwork, stakeholder interviews, and desk research. Namely, these include architectures of contemporary earth in the American Southwest, engineered timber in Norway, and advanced bamboo in Bali. Analyses exceed the important, albeit reductive, quantitative environmental metrics of life cycle assessment to further consider meaningful knock-on effects such as job creation, ecosystem stewardship, reinforcement of local identity, and valuation of place-based knowledge. Put simply, SENs promise to support decision-makers with fuller answers to the fundamental question of which material systems for building should be favoured in a particular time and place.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Salka, Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steemers, Koen

• architecture
• bioregional architecture
• natural material architecture
• ecological architecture
• engineered timber
• earth buildings
• bamboo construction
• earth construction
• engineered timber construction
• bio-based construction
• social-ecological network
• social-ecological network analysis
• place-based architecture
• earth architecture
• adobe
• 3D printed earth
• natural material buildings
• indigenous architecture

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/afe01cba-705b-4e57-9666-5a82353cf750/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.127242

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/398378