Thinking of using natural materials in your project" Our latest Dezeen guide includes 12 types of biomaterials commonly used in architecture, design and interiors.
The term biomaterials is used to describe building materials derived from living organisms including plants, animals and fungi.
Plant-based materials, which we mostly focus on in this guide, are becoming increasingly popular among designers and architects due to their environmental performance.
This is because they offer cruelty-free production, are usually biodegradable and store CO2 during their useful lifetime, thereby lowering the embodied carbon footprint of buildings and products.
Some, like wood and hemp, can be used in their raw state while others such as algae, mycelium and food waste are generally mixed with other materials to be turned into useful composites.
Read: Ten texture-heavy restaurant interiors filled with natural materials

Architects could "definitely" construct buildings completely out of biomaterials according to Biobased Creations CEO Lucas De Man, who told Dezeen that timber, hemp and mycelium could replace non-renewable materials like steel, plasterboard and cement.
Sequestering carbon is an important way to tackle climate change. Plant matter including algae, timber and hemp capture carbon from the atmosphere and transform it into biomass via photosynthesis.
With the recent focus on embodied carbon emissions, biomaterials...