Morris+Company

A journey through material, memory and meaning.

14 May – 26 September 2025

Free Exhibition + Events at Morris+Company

From ancient brickfields to future-facing buildings, Clay | Culture | Carbon is a journey into the elemental, essential material that has shaped our cities — clay — and how it may continue to reshape them.

This exhibition explores clay not just as matter, but as memory: local, human, and deeply cultural. In an age of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and housing emergency, what can this material teach us about sustainability, innovation and craft?

Through hands-on workshops, conversations and community collaborations — from schoolchildren to industry specialists — we reimagine the role of clay in a carbon-conscious world. Can we maintain craft in an age of industrialisation? Can we build beauty with biodiversity in mind? And how do we ensure our buildings remain loved, lived-in and lasting?

From earth to hand. From past to possible.

"Do fired clay bricks have a future in a low-carbon world?"

This exhibition is now closed.

Acknowledgements

Support + Collaboration
UCL East Community Engagement Seed Fund
UCL MSci Research
EH Smith
Lyons & Annoot
Wienerberger

Contributors
CELLA
Adele Williams
Studio Popelo + Oliver Wilton
Chloe Smart
Carmody Groarke
Vandersanden
Kenoteq
a2o architects
Albion Stone

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Clay | Culture | Carbon - Launch Event

Co-Making Clay tile making workshop with students from The City Academy, Hackney, exploring extraction, carbon, co-making, and creating habitats.

Co-Making These social outreach and environmental learning sessions encouraged curiosity, collaboration, personal expression and creative agency.

Co-Making The installation includes both fired and unfired tiles, annotated with student reflections.

Co-Making Red notes identify the carbon cost of firing — green notes carry messages such as: “No fire – we only have one planet.”

Co-Making Combining material experimentation with critical discussion, the resulting work is a small but powerful model for how the future of building could be more inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful.