From Asbestos to Mycelium: Eight Materials Rebuilt From Waste

Cement alone accounts for roughly 8% of global CO2 emissions — and that single figure explains why a wave of research projects is now rebuilding construction materials from waste, debris and living matter. Eight initiatives presented in a recent survey suggest the industry's future may lie less in recycling and more in transformation: combining existing matter into entirely new materials.

Can asbestos be made harmless?

Australian studio Besley & Spresser, working with Asbeter and Benedetta Pompili Studio, thinks so. Asbestos — a mineral used mostly in finishes, cement and insulation — has been gradually banned worldwide since the 1970s because of its toxicity. The collaborators reinterpreted it as a byproduct they describe as harmless and carbon-negative, with architectural potential. According to the studio, asbestos can be recrystallized into new, human-safe products, and waste building materials containing it can be safely recycled into non-hazardous forms. A test installation at the 2025 Lisbon Architecture Triennale presented the work as an example of "radical repair" and the rediscovery of urban materials.

What about war debris and sawdust?

At the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (KNUCA), researchers are mixing debris from war-damaged buildings with industrial and agricultural waste to produce printable concrete for additive manufacturing. The project, financed by the United States and international organizations, targets large-scale housing reconstruction in Ukraine.

In Switzerland, ETH Zurich and Empa researchers are developing a fire-resistant material from sawdust — the powder and tiny wood chips from wood processing, most of which is burned for energy, releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere. Combining sawdust with the mineral struvite, made possible by controlling struvite's crystallization with an enzyme extracted from watermelon seeds, produces a fire-resistant composite that is easy to recycle.

What could replace concrete?

Several projects are targeting concrete's core properties: moldability, strength and mass producibility.

• Poured Earth: Matter at Hand and ceramic manufacturer Darwen Terracotta transform clay into a fluid, concrete-like material using recycled aggregates, sand and natural fibers, with sodium silicate or tannins to increase fluidity without extra water.
• Corncretl: Mexican studio MANUFACTURA — one of 20 honorees of the Archdaily 2026 Next Practices Awards — combines limestone derivatives, corn and recycled nejayote, a calcium-rich byproduct of dried-corn processing in Mexico, using robotic 3D printing and biocomposites drawing on pre-Hispanic construction techniques.
• Mycelium structures: Montana State University researchers use mycelium, the underground root network of fungi, to design load-bearing materials. The mycelium acts as a "scaffold" to which microorganisms adhere and harden through calcification.

Can one material change a whole system?

Some research aims at a single transformative effect. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, with ecology and biomimicry firm bioSEA, is developing mycelium-and-bamboo-shaving tiles that cool buildings without consuming energy. Their texture mimics elephant skin, whose wrinkles and crevices help elephants regulate temperature.

At Japan's RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), researchers have created a supramolecular plastic that dissolves in seawater. Composed of two ionic monomers that bacteria can consume and that salt water quickly destabilizes, it is intended to stop microplastics from harming ocean life.

What's happening at city scale?

Policy and tools are moving alongside the lab work. New York, London and Brussels are converting former industrial infrastructure into circular construction hubs — sites that collect, store and redistribute building materials and demolition waste for reuse rather than landfill. Architecture firm HENN launched CarbonBudget, a digital tool that calculates project-specific CO2 budgets and tests whether a European building project's emissions fit the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target based on location and building area. In Italy, a new open-air research site called Shamballa hosts R&D centers forming an experimental "ecosystem" for bio-construction and advanced architectural 3D printing.

The through-line: demonizing existing materials is unnecessary, the survey argues, as long as the capacity for material innovation keeps turning waste and living matter into viable construction inputs.