“Discovering magic in the mundane” – Q&A with Ian Hunter, Materials Council

Posted 12.05.2025

Ian is a creative materials specialist, co-founder and director of Materials Council. He works with architects, designers and researchers around the world helping them source, select and specify materials on projects.

1. Tell us a bit about your background.

I’ve always been a keen maker, obsessed with what things are made from and how they are made. I originally studied to be an industrial designer; my first ‘proper’ design job for a while was working as a chandelier designer before I moved over to the world of architectural materials, when I got a job at Foster + Partners as a materials researcher. This was a highly formative experience for me that eventually led to the conception of Materials Council.

2. What does the Materials Council do?

We consider ourselves an independent, creative materials consultancy. Essentially, we’re materials specialists coming from a design perspective, which I would characterise as a balance between art and science. Our neutrality and impartiality are crucial – we accept no money from industry, meaning we are completely honest and critical in our evaluation of materials, technologies or manufacturers.

Our day-to-day involves discovering new materials and technologies and working with architects and designers to help them source, select and specify materials on projects. There’s a huge focus on sustainability and environmental issues now. We work either directly on projects or at a more strategic level, helping to establish material selection policies and agendas within studios. A big part of what we do is creating materials libraries and curated collections for our clients – such as the wonderful Make – and we’ve also developed our own materials selection and library management software to help creatives navigate an increasingly demanding, globalised and data-driven world.

Material Council’s ‘In the Scale of Carbon’ exhibition at London Design Festival.

L–R: Ian Hunter (Materials Council), Brad Turner (Materials Council), Dr Craig Jones (Circular Ecology)

3. What interests you about exploring innovation with traditional materials versus new technologies?

Over the years doing this, I’ve come to appreciate that true brilliance lies in innovating with everyday materials, rather than always lusting after the new or novel. Of course, technological developments are intriguing and exciting, but it sometimes feels to me that designers simply try to stick innovation onto their buildings rather than innovating themselves. And I get it – it’s easy to understand what’s special about ‘translucent concrete’ or the like, but an in-depth understanding of an ‘ordinary’ material, such as plywood, takes far more effort and knowledge to uncover its special qualities, nuances or affordances. At Materials Council, we love to talk about discovering magic in the mundane.

4. How do you systemise and quantify materials within sustainable approaches?

This is a big question. I believe one of the most important things when dealing with sustainability is to be as specific as possible about what we actually mean by this nebulous word in a given context. When addressing sustainability with clients, we first work to establish the priorities of the project: is it health and wellbeing, circularity, carbon? Of course, we want to address them all, but there will almost always be a trade-off somewhere. Understanding the hierarchy of sustainability on a project is key to making effective decisions and being able to justify them. To answer the question more directly, we think in three broad ideas:

Reduce emissions
Conserve planetary resources
Help humans flourish

Building on these ideas, we recently developed our own Sustainability Assessment System (SAS), which objectively evaluates materials across 12 impact categories. These include embodied carbon, toxicity, locality, social impact, circularity and information transparency, to name a few.

5. Where else does the profession lead you beyond architecture and design?

I’m not sure I ever truly escape the world of architecture and design – nor would I want to! My work is happily diverse, so I enjoy both the technical side of architecture and its more poetic aspects. I’m a tutor at the Royal College of Art, teaching on a materials-driven design platform called superMATTER, which I greatly enjoy. Starting a business has required me to develop entrepreneurial, organisational and communication skills, and I do a lot of public talks, exhibitions and debates. Otherwise, left to my own devices, I often end up making something – whether it’s woodworking, linoleum printing, or, more recently, experimenting with creating my own bio-composites.

Ian's Material Matters workshop for Make Neutral Day 2024.

6. How do you see research being led in the materials science field – is it manufacturer or designer driven?

Traditionally, material innovation has been driven by industry – by those who find technical solutions and then look for ways to commercialise them. However, there’s been an increasing trend of designers creating their own materials or collaborating with manufacturers to develop new products or technologies. Baux and Dzek are fantastic examples of this. I find it fascinating, as the designer’s approach often begins with a problem and then explores and iterates to solve it. In contrast, industry-driven developments can sometimes be solutions in search of a problem.

7. How does materials science shape the built environment and influence our future?

Being grandiose, our ability to manipulate matter and adapt to our environment is one of the key qualities that makes us human – and certainly one that has made us the dominant species on the planet. So, I’d argue that materials have had a huge influence on almost every aspect of our lives. Today, broadly speaking, I expect things to become larger, lighter and smarter – but I don’t necessarily see this altering our lives in a fundamental way. What I do hope, and expect, is that material development will enable us to continue creating fantastic environments without harming people or planet. On the surface, things may look the same, but beneath that, the technology used to produce our materials will be – at worst – benign, and ideally capable of healing the planet and helping us to flourish. Or that’s my utopian vision, anyway.

8. Do you have a favourite material?

When it comes to materials, I am very much promiscuous – constantly seduced by the many wonderful bits of matter I encounter in my work. But, with a metaphorical gun to my head, I can declare my enduring love for cast glass bricks. The contrast between bulk and ephemerality, solidity and transparency, and the quality of light they produce is something I find endlessly enchanting.