ABSTRACT
With few exceptions, contemporary examples of low-impact construction are small-scale and rural. This presents the risk that the materials and techniques are dismissed as irrelevant to larger-scale projects and/or urban design. However, historically many of them were used at a larger scale and in urban areas. If anything, technical advances should mean that we are better positioned to use them than before, but the knowledge gap has expanded in recent years, not least because of the ease with which mechanical and chemical manipulation of materials can take place. As a consequence the research emphasis has been on new materials rather than better use of existing ones.
