Rock structures have existed forever. It is the most durable construction material available and is generally easy to obtain. There are many types of rock around the world, all with different attributes that make them better or worse for certain uses. Rock is a very dense material, so it offers a lot of protection. Its main drawback as a material is its weight and its discomfort.
Straw is one of the oldest known building materials, grass is a good insulator and is easily harvested. Many ancient tribes have lived in houses made entirely of grass all year round. In Europe, thatched roofs were very common, but this material fell out of use as modernization and improved transportation increased the availability of other materials. Today, however, this practice is re-emerging.
Scrubland structures are built entirely with plant parts and are usually found in tropical and subtropical areas, such as tropical rainforests, where very large leaves can be used in construction. The natives also used to build structures to rest and live. They are built primarily from branches, twigs, leaves and bark, similar to beaver nests.
The Inuit used ice to build igloos, but it has also been used to build ice hotels as a tourist attraction in areas of the north that would not otherwise see many winter tourists.
The amount of each material used gives rise to different building styles. The decisive factor is usually related to the quality of the soil used. A larger amount of clay usually means the use of the cob/adobe style, while a low clay soil is usually associated with sod construction. The other main ingredients include more or less sand/gravel and straw. Soil, and especially clay, is a good thermal mass; it's very good at keeping temperatures at a constant level.
Homes built with soil tend to be naturally cool in the summer heat and warm in cold weather. Clay retains heat or cold, releasing it over a period of time like stone. Earth walls change temperature slowly, so raising or lowering the temperature artificially can consume more resources than, for example, in a house built with wood, but heat or cold stays longer.
The tent used to be the favorite home of nomadic groups around the world. Two well-known types are the conical type and the circular yurt. With the development of stretch architecture and synthetic fabrics, it has re-emerged as an important construction technique. Modern buildings can be made of flexible materials, such as canvas fabrics or membranes, and supported by a system of steel cables.
Ceramics used to be just a specialized form of clay pottery that was fired in kilns, but it has evolved into more technical areas, although kiln firing is normally an important step in its creation. Ceramic is usually more resistant to water and heat than other types of ceramic, due to its high firing temperature. It is usually used to make tiles, tiles, etc.
It is mostly used as accessories, ceramic floors, walls, countertops and even ceilings. Many countries use ceramic tiles to cover their buildings. Other uses of ceramics are international space programs, which have used ceramic tiles to cover the underside of spacecraft such as the space shuttle program, high-temperature engines, and dental implants and synthetic bones.
More recently, synthetic polystyrene or polyurethane foam has been used on a limited scale. It's lightweight, easy to mold and an excellent insulator. It is usually used as part of a structural insulating panel in which foam is sandwiched between wood and cement.
Limestone is perhaps the construction material most commonly obtained from mining. It is used as a cladding material and plays an important role in the production of a wide range of construction products.
Concrete and plaster are obvious examples of products that rely on limestone; less obvious is the use of limestone in the production of steel and glass. Limestone is an abundant natural resource around the world. Most of the limestone is crushed in the quarry and then converted to lime.
Glassmaking is considered an art form, as well as an industrial process or material. Transparent windows have been used since the invention of glass to cover small openings in buildings. Thanks to them, human beings could let light into rooms and, at the same time, protect them from inclement weather.
Glass is generally made from mixtures of sand and silicates, in a very hot stove called an oven, and is very brittle. Very often, additives are added to the mixture to produce glass with different shades of colors or characteristics (such as bulletproof glass or glass that emits light).
The use of glass in architectural buildings has become very popular in modern culture. Glass “curtain walls” can be used to cover the entire facade of a building, or to cover a large roof structure in a “spatial frame”. However, these uses require some form of frame to hold the glass sections together, since glass alone is too fragile.
Rammed earth is similar to building with adobe or cob, since its main component is soil, clay and sand. Very little water is used during construction, so walls almost 3 meters high can be erected in one day.
Most of the Great Wall of China is either rammed earth or has a large component of rammed earth as a base. Traditionally, rammed earth buildings are common in arid regions where wood is scarce.
Fly ash, an extremely versatile material, offers environmental benefits and improves the performance and quality of concrete. Fly ash influences the properties of concrete by improving workability, reducing water demand, reducing segregation and bleeding, and reducing the heat of hydration.
Fly ash also increases strength, reduces permeability, reduces corrosion of reinforcing steel by increasing sulfate resistance and reducing the alkali-aggregate reaction.
Wood is a product of trees, and sometimes other fibrous plants, that is used for construction purposes when it is cut or pressed into the form of sawn wood and firewood, such as boards, planks and similar materials. It is a generic construction material and is used in the construction of almost any type of structure in most climates.
Wood can be very flexible under loads, maintaining its strength when bent, and is incredibly strong when compressed vertically. There are many differences in the qualities of different types of wood, even between the same tree species. This means that certain species are better than others for different uses. And growing conditions are important in deciding quality.
Recycled tire rubber for indoor and outdoor floors and coverings. These reusable and recycled materials are:
Wood chips treated with minerals and joined with cement to form interlocking walls. Blocks without mortar are filled with cement when they are placed.
Comparatively, this material is: lightweight, low density, thermal and acoustic insulation, fireproof, fireproof, pest-resistant, highly insulating, weatherproof.
Wood chips agglomerated with cement, compressed and molded in the form of walls, ceilings, floors and cladding panels.
Comparatively, this material is: lightweight, low density, thermal and acoustic insulation, fireproof, fire resistant, pest resistant, highly insulating and weather resistant.
These bricks are made by mixing a set amount of fly ash, cement and stone dust in a mixer and are molded in a brick-making machine. The percentage of fly ash can range from 40% to 70%. The other ingredients are lime, gypsum (/cement), sand, stone dust/chips, etc.
A minimum compressive strength (28 days) of 70 kg/cm² can easily be achieved, which can reach up to 250 Kg/cm² (in the autoclave type).
Advantages of these bricks over conventional bricks:
The process of mixing fly ash, lime and calcined gypsum has resulted in a useful product, called “Fal-G”. Fal-G has strong binder proportions and can be used as cement. It can be mixed with sand and/or aggregates to produce building blocks of the desired strength.
Lightweight sintered aggregate replaces chunks of stone in concrete, reducing dead weight. It can also be used for various purposes, such as lightweight concrete structural construction units for use as load-bearing and non-load-bearing elements.
It has great potential where fly ash is locally available and stone aggregates are expensive.
Lightweight cellular concrete (CLC) can be manufactured using a process that involves mixing fly ash and cement. These blocks are especially useful in the construction of high-rise buildings, since they reduce the structure's own weight.
Lightweight cellular concrete (CLC) blocks replace conventional bricks and concrete blocks in construction, with a density that varies between 800 kg/m3 and 1800 kg/m3.
Autoclaved cellular concrete can be manufactured using a process that consists of mixing fly ash, quicklime or cement and gypsum in a high speed mixer to form a fine slurry. It is considered an excellent product for prefabricated cladding and forged blocks.
Compacted and stabilized clay fly ash blocks can be easily manufactured with lime, cement or other components.
The problem of getting dry fly ash on the construction site makes it somewhat difficult to adopt this technology. Twenty to fifty percent of fly ash can be mixed, depending on soil quality, to produce clay fly ash bricks using conventional or mechanized processes.
Its advantages include: reduced fuel requirements, since fly ash contains a certain percentage of unburned carbon, better thermal insulation, cost-effectiveness and respect for the environment.
Insulated structural panels (SIPs), which replace conventional structures and offer greater energy efficiency, lower wood use and faster construction, are rapidly becoming a staple of the green building industry.
SIPs are polystyrene foam panels sandwiched between oriented chipboards that provide structural framework, insulation and exterior cladding in one piece.
They can be used as floors, walls and roofs, and offer much greater energy efficiency than insulation in truss walls, with an improvement in the R value of between 15% and 40%.
Cork is a great insulating material. It stays warmer in winter and cooler in summer. This energy efficiency helps lower energy bills in winter.
It is much more energy efficient than special laminate floors or recessed wood floors. Cork is also a good sound insulator.
Cellulose insulation is a natural insulating material. It is made from recycled newsprint and other recycled paper products. The recycled content is at least 75% or more.
This material is best as an acoustic insulator to reduce noise at home. The coverage is more uniform and better dampens sounds coming from outside the house or the adjoining room.
One of the most popular terrazzo surfaces is made from recycled glass and molded concrete. Glass is used both post-consumer and post-industrial.
The final product contains between 80% and 95% of post-consumer recycled content and, therefore, depends on the material being produced and consumed in the first place.
Terrazzo is as durable as granite and less porous than marble, making it a durable and beautiful ecological material.
Paints can have a negative impact on the indoor air quality of a building because they can contain chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), other toxic components that evaporate into the air and are harmful to the health of occupants.
VOCs react with sunlight and nitrogen oxide to form tropospheric ozone, a chemical that has harmful effects on human health.
These problems can be eliminated by using paints with low or no VOC content.
Bamboo is one of the most surprisingly versatile and sustainable building materials out there. It grows at high speed in a wide range of climates. It is extremely resistant for its weight and can be used both structurally and as a finishing material.
There is a long vernacular tradition of using bamboo in structures in many parts of the world, especially in tropical climates, where it grows on larger diameter canes.
A delicate aspect of the use of bamboo is that of carpentry; since its strength comes from its integral structure, it cannot be joined with many of the traditional techniques used with wood.
Adobe is one of the oldest building materials. Basically, it's soil moistened with water, sometimes with chopped straw or other fibers added for strength, and then left to dry in the desired shape.
Adobe is often molded into uniform blocks that can be stacked like bricks to form walls, but it can also be simply stacked over time to create a structure.
The best mud soil will have between 15% and 30% clay to bind the material together, and the rest will be mostly sand or larger aggregates. Too much clay will shrink and crack excessively; too little will allow fragmentation.
Adobe is a good thermal mass material, which keeps heat and cold well. It doesn't insulate very well, so adobe walls need some means of insulation to maintain comfort in the building.
The construction with lamb wood uses short, round pieces of wood, similar to what would normally be considered firewood. This construction method can be very resource efficient, since it uses wood that may not have much more value.
The construction with lamb wood can also create a wall with insulation and thermal mass properties. This material offers a rustic and beautiful look at the same time.
The construction with soil bags (also called sandbags) is both old and new. Sandbags have been used for a long time, mostly by the military to create strong, protective barriers, or for flood control.
The same reasons that make them useful for these applications extend to the creation of houses: walls are solid and substantial, withstand all types of weather (or even bullets and pumps), and can be erected easily and quickly with readily available components.
The new polypropylene bags have superior strength and durability, as long as they are kept away from excessive sunlight. For permanent housing, the bags must be covered with some type of plaster to protect them.
Composed of recycled paper and concrete. It can replace concrete in most lightweight applications. The advantages are, obviously, that it's much lighter, crack-resistant and takes advantage of paper and boxes that would otherwise be discarded.
Poured soil is similar to ordinary concrete, in that it mixes and forms like concrete and uses Portland cement as a binder.
The main difference is that instead of the sand/gravel used as aggregate in concrete, poured soil uses ordinary soil (although this soil must meet certain specifications) and generally uses less Portland cement.
The spilled soil could be considered “moderate-strength concrete”.
Poured earth walls require little or no maintenance, as they have great resistance to the effects of erosion (wear) of water and heat (sun).
Straw is a renewable resource that acts as an excellent insulator and is fairly easy to build. Care must be taken to keep the straw dry, or it will eventually rot.
It's usually best to let a wall of straw bales remain breathable, as any moisture barrier will invite condensation and weaken the structure.
Assembling bullet walls can be surprisingly quick and doesn't require much skill, but the rest of the construction is similar to that of any other wood-framed house.
In fact, straw bale houses usually save around 15% of the wood used in a conventional half-timbered house.
The possibilities are endless, because now with the resources and support of world governments and powerful and wealthy business magnates, more biological, hybrid and new materials are being produced every day that surpasses conventional building materials in every aspect, while at the same time meeting all the criteria of being an ecological and sustainable material.
An example of these futuristic construction methods and sustainable materials are the large scale tests being carried out to 3D “print” an entire building or bridge. This is really impressive.
EDGE certification is one of the fastest and most effective ways to create efficient buildings, reduce energy, water, and material consumption, and increase property resale value. Developed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, EDGE helps real estate projects lower their environmental impact, reduce operating costs, and support decarbonization efforts. With a streamlined and measurable process, EDGE has become a strategic certification for developers and investors seeking sustainability, profitability, and market differentiation.
Sustainable certifications in Mexico are gaining prominence as a key tool for companies and projects that seek to demonstrate their environmental, social and governance commitment. They are no longer limited to construction alone, but encompass complete processes, operations, products and business models.
Discover how environmental certifications, energy efficiency and sustainable buildings increase the resale value of a property and reduce its environmental impact.
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