(Im)material production: investigating the spatial ecologies born out of new bio-based architectures

In the context of escalating global environmental pressures and ecological breakdown, current trajectories of material resource use in the construction sector are overwhelming the regenerative capacity of the biosphere, causing severe repercussions to the interdependencies of humans and ecosystems across different scales. Research into bio-based building materials such as hemp, straw, stone, and earth has received widespread attention as a holistic tool for envisioning human development on a stable and resilient planet. However, the supply of these materials at scale remains dependent upon the continuation (and expansion, in some cases) of an economic and political model that is based on large-scale extraction and dependent upon an infinite resource pool. We argue that materials are not fixed commodities but are continuous with the landscapes they come from: co-constituted by people's livelihoods, land ownership and cultivation models, and more-than-human inhabitants, so they should not be separated from these entangled relations. This research critically examines what the shift to a bio-based construction material palette means for current material-ecological systems, and what new natures are born from these interspecies sociomaterial relations. Focusing on bats (a high mobility, keystone species in the UK) to re-evaluate how the production and use of bio-based materials is an interspecies endeavour, here we map out the systemic cracks in land use, ecology, and conservation planning created by capitalist structures. We found that the excluded relations fall under three typologies: value, temporality, and knowledge. Our research also revealed how systems of material production can create spaces for alternative forms of cohabitation and non-extractive production, or interspecies repair. This critical study makes a case for a broader discussion of interspecies spatial-ecologies born out of new bio-based architectures.