Our mission
Our Mission
Accelerating the adoption of sustainable material innovations. The future of the built environment depends on better material choices.
Why MaterialDistrict exists
Around the world, manufacturers, researchers and designers are developing materials that can help make buildings and interiors healthier, more circular and less harmful to the environment.
Yet even the most promising innovation creates no impact until it is discovered, understood, specified and applied.
That is why MaterialDistrict exists.
Since 1998 we have connected material innovation with the architects, interior designers, developers, engineers, contractors, public authorities and other professionals shaping the built environment.
From innovation to application
Innovation alone does not change the built environment. Application does.
MaterialDistrict bridges the gap between the people developing new materials and the people selecting and specifying them. We make relevant innovation visible, accessible and understandable, so that professionals can make better-informed material choices.
Every material that finds its way into a real project is a step towards a better built environment.
What we mean by sustainable
Sustainability is a word that can be made to mean almost anything. We have narrowed it to three themes, and we apply them to everything we select, publish and exhibit.
Circularity
Materials that keep their value. The biological cycle of renewable, biobased sources and their waste streams, and the technical cycle of finite materials that must be reused, recovered and upcycled rather than discarded.
Wellbeing
Materials that are good for the people who live and work with them. Healthy, breathable, acoustic, air-cleaning, free of harmful compounds — and beautiful.
Energy Transition
Materials that reduce the energy a building consumes, or that replace energy-hungry systems altogether. Insulation, smart materials, and materials that generate energy of their own.
Our ambition for 2030
In 2019 we made a commitment that still guides us: by 2030 at the latest, MaterialDistrict intends to give access to its platform only to circular material innovations.
We put our own money behind it. Since 2019, fifteen per cent of our turnover goes into the MaterialDistrict Innovation Fund, which helps young companies with circular innovations take part in MaterialDistrict Utrecht when their own means fall short.
The shift is deliberate and gradual. Each year, the balance of what we present moves further towards circular solutions. It narrows what we show, and that is the point: a platform that shows everything helps no one choose.
Independent by design
Trust matters when professionals make choices that may shape a building for decades.
MaterialDistrict is an independent platform. We do not aim to present everything that enters the market. We select and contextualise developments based on their relevance to the built environment and to the professionals who use our platform.
Our role is to inform, inspire and connect. Commercial partnerships make our work possible, but they do not replace our editorial judgement.
More than an online platform
- Independent news and editorial coverage of material innovation.
- A curated database of materials and the brands behind them.
- Books and thematic guides that make specialist knowledge accessible.
- MaterialDistrict Utrecht, our annual event dedicated to innovative materials.
- Curated material exhibitions presented at events and partner locations.
- Talks and knowledge programmes that connect research, industry and practice.
Together, these activities help professionals discover what is possible, and help relevant innovations move closer to real-world application.
Choose your route
Two ways in — one for the people who specify materials, one for the people who make them.
I am a professional
Discover relevant materials, follow the channels that matter to your practice and build your own material knowledge.
Create a free accountI am a brand
Bring your materials to the attention of architects, designers and other professionals who influence specification.
See the options