Advanced Building Materials Making New Construction More Sustainable

Every city, big or small, faces the problems with contemporary buildings and environmental issues. Also, the noise in each and every city reaches unbearable levels, making it hard for constructors and architects to make a good, eco-friendly building that suits everyone’s needs. To achieve their goals, they have to search for new materials, and here are some of the most sustainable and advanced building materials found.

Wood

When people think about the wood as a building material, it is hard for them to imagine something bigger than a tree house. However, the today’s technology has worked miracles on wood alterations and they have found several ways of making wood hard and strong enough to be considered as part of the emerging advanced building materials used in construction activities. The results of researches are CLT and Kebony. CLT is a lightweight and extremely strong material that has orthotropic quality. Unlike normal wood, it is strong both in grain and cross direction, because of its perpendicular layers. Also, since it relies on layers of smaller beams, it reduces waste by using knotty timber that mills usually reject. Kebony is another developed type of wood, which is more durable and stronger than ebony and it is eco-friendly and non-toxic. This green wood is made in a process of combining sustainable softwood and bio-waste liquid and heat.

Titanium Dioxide

Since lots of cities are polluted with exhaust fumes and dirt in the air, we need something in our buildings to purify that air and create a much more pleasant environment. There is just one simple addition we can make to all the prefinished facades of the buildings – titanium dioxide. If only a nano-coating of titanium dioxides is applied on the outer skin of the building, it will pull the dirt, grease and bacteria out of the air, thus purify it. Titanium Dioxide reacts to sunlight that acts on it during the day, and supplementing it by ultra violet light at night. Those UV lights can be easily powered by energy collected through PV panels, and could serve as lights that will glow during the night.

Foamed Concrete

Foamed concrete is made by adding special foam into a mixture of cement, fly ash, water and sand. This advanced material is used for making lightweight blocks which can be used for many different purposes. Primarily, this material is used for partition walls, void filling and roof insulation. Also, this lightweight material can be used in tunnel and wall construction, ground works, fire breaks and sound insulation. Not only this material is versatile, but it has many benefits such as excellent load spreading characteristics, low water absorption, fire and sound resistance and many others.

Graphene

Graphene is a new material that is made from graphite and it is famous for being super thin and strong and an amazing conductor of electricity and heat. It is one of the most versatile materials that could be used in building nearly anything. Scientists believe it could improve solar energy and allow creation and operation of solar panels at lower costs. Also, because of its thinness and flexibility, it could be used for electronic paper and communication devices that could bend. However, the main aim is incorporating it into building structures which can lead to a better and healthier environment and lower costs.

Impact Resistant Glass

Impact resistant glass is another example of an advanced building materials used in building and construction. The advancement in glass production has led us to the development of impact resistant glass. This strong glass is typically used in homes that are located in hurricane or tornado zones, and it eliminates the potential of injuries caused by glass debris damaged in major weather events. Not only this glass makes homes safe, but encourages larger windows and using less concrete and other building materials, thus preserving the environment and lowering the bills of homeowners.

We are responsible for the world we are making, so we should do our best to use the advanced technology and science for making some groundbreaking sustainable  advanced building materials. We already have some of those materials, and it has only left to use them.