Concrete is the most consumed material on the planet after water, with more than 10 billion tonnes produced each year. Unlike water, it is a human-made product that is wrenched, crushed and sweated out of the environment. Although architects, planners and developers know that the use of concrete must be reduced across the construction industry, its production is instead increasing. This issue examines the factors that stand in the way of a radical shift away from carbon-intensive building materials such as cement and concrete. Read the full editorial

The ground is sinking. A crater nearly a kilometre wide has opened in the Siberian forest as permafrost there melts for the first time in 650,000 years. The revealed ground, depicted on the cover, is releasing thousands of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere each year; but it also contains evidence of the Earth’s history. In the issue’s keynote essay, Dima Srouji traces entangled histories in the ground of Gaza; yet the ground is also a place of rebirth and regrowth, as buildings in the issue in Ecuador, Sri Lanka and elsewhere show. Some of these buildings rediscover the ground as a structural material, radically unlearning the reliance on carbon-intensive construction. Read the full editorial