Tane Garden House, Vitra Campus Weil am Rhein, Germany, 2023, Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architecture

ARC480H1 F1
Instructor: Sam Dufaux
Meeting Section: L0101
Fall 2025

As our world and industry are rapidly transitioning into a low carbon economy, natural materials are critically needed to reduce carbon emissions and extractive harmful impact associated with conventional building materials.  

In this course, we will learn about materials that either sequester carbon or materials with very low embodied carbon, their life-cycle, characteristics and appropriate use in buildings. Natural materials are defined as minimally processed, readily available, local, healthy and non-toxic such as hemp, straw, cork, bamboo, earth, stone, mycelium, etc.

We will examine a number of global case studies in contemporary construction utilizing these materials, study key publications, do material research and also bring a number of guest speakers, to discuss the use of natural materials in design and construction.

Students will be asked to apply the learnings in the local context of Toronto, with the goal to define a bioregional approach to design. This includes identifying local resources, materials, processes, supply chains as well as designing regenerative life-cycles to transform the way we build in our specific bioregion.