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Another alternative is bricks made from cork. The main use of cork is making wine bottle stoppers, which results in lots of left over material. Cork is more eco

by fyfy18 6y ago

Another alternative is bricks made from cork. The main use of cork is making wine bottle stoppers, which results in lots of left over material. Cork is more ecological than wood, as it's the stripped bark of the tree (the tree will continue growing once harvested and can be harvested multiple times). In this process they grind up left over material from wine bottle stoppers, and heat it to form large bricks (it binds itself). The bricks are then cut on a CNC machine to give the correct form, and the waste material is sent back to the beginning of the process. Cork is a natural insulator, so building a house is more like stacking LEGO in this process. https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-regional-awards/riba-south-award-winners/2019/cork-house https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing... Both are great ideas, but I doubt I am going to be seeing these for sale in my local builders merchant anytime soon.

dirtyid 6y ago
I love a good cork floor, but there isn't enough cork trees in the world to be viable substitute construction materials outside of niche applications.
rapnie 6y ago
I'm really enthousiastic for cross-laminated timber (CLT), which has such good properties it can even replace concrete skeleton in high-rise (10+ storeys) building construction. Plus applying it is a means to do carbon capture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-laminated_timber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-laminated_timber
petre 6y ago
I like hempcrete or hemp lime which is a mixture of hemp hurds with lime and sand. It's poured in place or made into bricks. However, the bricks also need cement for structural integrity, so it's best to pour it in place. One needs wooden framing to sustain the walls. I don't think it's scalable to build tall buildings using it but for regular houses it's perfect because it also has good insulation, vapour and thermal buffering characteristics. We probably need something with enough structural integrity to be able to at least 3D print houses. The architects can then create a 3D model which is fed to a printing crane and printed in place.

by fyfy18 6y ago

dirtyid 6y ago

I love a good cork floor, but there isn't enough cork trees in the world to be viable substitute construction materials outside of niche applications.

rapnie 6y ago

I'm really enthousiastic for cross-laminated timber (CLT), which has such good properties it can even replace concrete skeleton in high-rise (10+ storeys) building construction. Plus applying it is a means to do carbon capture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-laminated_timber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-laminated_timber

petre 6y ago

I like hempcrete or hemp lime which is a mixture of hemp hurds with lime and sand. It's poured in place or made into bricks. However, the bricks also need cement for structural integrity, so it's best to pour it in place. One needs wooden framing to sustain the walls. I don't think it's scalable to build tall buildings using it but for regular houses it's perfect because it also has good insulation, vapour and thermal buffering characteristics. We probably need something with enough structural integrity to be able to at least 3D print houses. The architects can then create a 3D model which is fed to a printing crane and printed in place.