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Joseph Choma, founder of Design Topology Lab and an architecture professor at Clemson University, is pioneering work into the field of foldable structures and materials. For the past few years, Choma has been focused on developing a fabrication technique that allows fiberglass to be folded by... View full entry
While technology has always been a double-edged sword when it comes to sustainability and equity, it also holds the key to ameliorating pressing environmental challenges. A rising generation of materials engineers and designers are engaging these questions with renewed urgency, examining the nexus of nature and technology to develop more sustainable architectural products. — Metropolis
With the changing environment, architects and designers must consider the evolution of architectural materials and its uses. Digital building techniques have already made an impact on the built environment, however building materials are being re-evaluated not only for their application but their... View full entry
UNStudio is known for their groundbreaking work in solution driven designs relating to the ever-changing urban environment. Climate is changing, which leaves architects and designers taking steps towards designing buildings and structures that can accommodate to the overheated urban environment... View full entry
Governments can help nudge the industry to use more wood, particularly in the public sector—the construction industry’s biggest client. That would help wood-building specialists achieve greater scale and lower costs. Zero-carbon building regulations should be altered to take account of the emissions that are embodied in materials. This would favour wood as well as innovative ways of producing other materials. — The Economist
The Economist compares the environmental impact of the industrialized world's most common building materials, cement and steel, with that of carbon-trapping wood, and how an earnest effort to reach the emission goals outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement cannot ignore building with timber on a... View full entry
Researchers at Columbia University have invented a digital "wood" using 3D-printing technology to replicate the material's external and internal structure. They believe the technique could be applied to other anisotropic materials, which are especially difficult to replicate due to their... View full entry
![Condensed potato peels. Courtesy Chip[s] Board](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/7c/7c499d6f497fc454f676598e99077233.jpeg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=514 "Condensed potato peels. Courtesy Chip[s] Board")
London-based designers Rowan Minkley and Robert Nicoll along with research scientist Greg Cooper have developed a biodegradable alternative to resin-based building materials such as low- and medium-density fiberboard. Called Chip[s] Board, the new material is made from non-food-grade industrial potato waste and is free of toxic chemicals and formaldehyde. — Architect Magazine
Potatoes are truly the most versatile vegetable. Chips, hash browns and vodka are just a few of its miracles, but it has also recently been added to the list of innovative building materials. London-based designers Rowan Minkley and Robert Nicoll, along with research scientist Greg Cooper, have... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition. Each year, the Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition – hosted by Confindustria Ceramica and the Italian Trade Agency – recognizes the outstanding work of North American architects, designers and students who create imaginative... View full entry
Students at the University of Cape Town have developed a bio-brick that mixes sand, bacteria and human urine. Unsurprisingly, it is the world's first building material to be made from the liquid waste high in nitrogen and phosphorous. The brick is created through a process called microbial... View full entry
Researchers say India could alleviate its growing shortage of sand, which is needed for concrete, by partially replacing it with waste plastic.
Research carried out by the University of Bath in the UK, and India’s Goa Engineering College, has found that concrete made with an admixture of ground-up plastic bottles is almost as strong as traditional concrete mixtures.
— globalconstructionreview.com
With India's rapid urbanization, concrete construction has dramatically increased causing a shortage in the country's sand used to make the building material. Mixing in plastic bottles focuses on solving both the issue of a sand shortage and the accumulation plastic waste on the streets. While... View full entry
Follow the intricate supply chains of architecture and you’ll find not just product manufacturers but also environmental polluters. Keep going and you’ll find as well the elusive networks of political influence that are underwritten by the billion-dollar construction industry. — Places Journal
In "What You Don't See," Brent Sturlaugson examines the supply chains of architecture to make the case that designers must expand their frameworks of action and responsibility for thinking about sustainability. Unraveling the networks of materials, energy, power, and money that must be... View full entry
A recent thesis project from three students explores adaptable architecture using drones and "smart" materials. The project, Cyber Physical Macro Material, uses lightweight carbon fiber building blocks with integrated sensing communication to create dynamic public spaces. Cyber Physical Macro... View full entry
Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, of China’s Amateur Architecture Studio want to protect Chinese culture and history by returning to artisanal building techniques and the use of materials such as natural stone, wood and bamboo. Wang Shu’s rejection of what he calls “professional, soulless architecture” has almost become a war cry. That kind of architecture, he believes, is ruining China. — South China Morning Post
Amateur Architecture Studio focuses on creating work that transcends the black and white divide of traditional and modern architecture. The duo have made it their mission to bring back handmade work and natural materials into modernization. China Academy of Art Xiangshan Campus by Amateur... View full entry
Earlier this week, the Oregon Building Codes Division announced a statement of alternate method (SAM) that makes Oregon the first state to allow for construction of wooden high-rises without special consideration. Previously, Portland, Ore., was the first American city to issue a permit for an all-wood high-rise, Project’s 12-story-tall Framework. — engineering.com
The statement of alternate method (SAM) was developed over two years by a committee created from the International Code Council’s Board of Directors. The committee proposed 14 suggestions concerning cross-laminated timber standards and best-practices, which were all accepted by the Oregon... View full entry
Scientists with the European Space Agency (ESA) have created a terrestrial simulation of moon dust to practice making bricks with. And it appears lunar “soil” is significantly different from its terrestrial equivalent, as it can be crushed, burned and compressed to form building materials, or used as the raw material for 3D printing. — globalconstructionreview.com
The European Space Agency (ESA) is experimenting with lunar dust as a building material with goals to avoid lifting hefty materials from Earth into space. Lunar dust is electrically charged and primarily composed of basalt (like volcanic rock) with 40% of its mass made of oxygen. ESA is testing... View full entry
Cut peat blocks were already being used for building houses thousands of years ago. Now, scientists at the University of Tartu have developed a material which could make it possible to print energy-efficient houses out of milled peat and oil shale ash using a 3D printer. — Research in Estonia
"As peat and oil shale ash are not very expensive, house builders would be especially happy about the price of the material. According to Liiv, scientists calculated that the cost for the construction of a house shell printed from this material with a floor surface of 100–150 square meters could... View full entry
