From natural building materials to the high-tech, browse through these pages to discover a variety of materials used in green building as alternatives to conventional materials.
Updated: March 6, 2020 What is hempcrete? Hempcrete is a unique building material, being a composite of a bio-fibre (hemp hurd or shiv) and a mineral binder (lime). These ingredients are blended together with water, and the moistened binder coats […]
Screen Reader Version Smarter and Greener: How cutting edge methods, materials and tech are making the world a more environmentally friendly and productive world. Cutting Edge Construction Methods Robot swarm construction What is it? Researchers at Harvard have built
Updated: March 6, 2020 One day I saw a bunch of old tires used as a retaining wall and that got me thinking about what other uses old tires are good for. I had a few thoughts about what to
IMAGE: This transmission electron microscope image shows cellulose nanocrystals, tiny structures that give trees and plants their high strength, light weight and resilience. The nanocrystals might be used to create a…Click here for more information. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The same
Part 2 of Building with Pumice (read part 1>>) This chapter tells how to build several different kinds of houses using building members of the kind described. Typical, practical models that have already been successfully built in various countries were
Everyone would like to live in their own home. Many people in industrialized countries occupy apartments in multistorey buildings. This situation involves lots of problems for which there’s no immediate solution. This book is intended to stimulate interest in a
Rammed earth, also known as taipa in Portuguese, tapial in Spanish or pisé de terre or simply pisé in French, is a technique used to build walls with earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It’s an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods. Rammed earth
Screen reader version: What is Steel? Steel is an alloy material made of iron and other elements including carbon. You will also find the following elements present in steel: Hard Facts 25 million – number of tonnes of steel products
Berkeley — In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, an international team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the ancient Romans, whose massive concrete structures have withstood the elements for more than 2,000 years. Using
In this article we present the outcome of our research into straw bale versus papercrete as alternatives to the most common types of building materials based on criteria such as R-value, cost of production and pollution concerns. The purpose is to see
