Building Materials » Alberta Construction Association

New Building System Eliminates Need for Suspended Ceilings

Technology Comments Off

Oct 152012

Spanish architectural firm Alarcon + Asociados has developed a new system for institutional building that allows essential elements such as wiring, plumbing, and ventilation to be incorporated into the floor, eliminating the need for suspended ceilings. The system, called Holedeck is created from perforated slabs of concrete. By eliminating suspended ceilings up to twenty inches can be shaved off each floor, saving materials, providing greater freedom in pillar placement, and potentially reducing the number of stories necessary for large buildings.

See a video on how it works:

University of Michigan Creates New Ductile Concrete

Technology Comments Off

May 232012

The University of Michigan’s school for Environmental and Civil Engineering, in collaboration with the United States Army, has created a concrete that has a compressive strength of 2-3 times conventional high strength concrete, as well as tensile ductility (the ability to be bent) of over 300 times.

Watch the video below for more information.

Building Material Labels Increase Transparency

Green Building Comments Off

Oct 192011

Transparency on building materials was an important issue at the 2011 Greenbuild conference. The U.S. Green Building Council intends to introduce a credit for the use of third-party verification of environmental claims, lifecycle assessment data or third-party certified environmental product declarations.

Architectural products company Construction Specialties, and Perkins + Will, a design firm, are pushing to establish a label on building materials, similar to nutritional labels on food, that specifies the content and environmental ramifications of the material.

Concrete Canvas Coming to Canada

Technology Comments Off

Oct 062011

A new concrete innovation is being introduced to North America from Wales. It has been referred to as Concrete Canvas in Canada.

The material was originally developed for the military in Great Britain for quickly composing concrete structures where needed. The canvas is laid out on a riverbed or landscape, hosed down in order to begin curing, and within two hours the material sets. It is waterproof and has a product life of twenty-five years.

Currently the product is waiting for approval for further usage in Canada, but at present is used for ditch lining/erosion control and underground mining applications.

The sales representative for the product, Dan O’Kane, says that a manufacturer could pick up production in North America in the near future.

Google Will No Longer Use “Red List” Building Materials

Green Building Comments Off

Oct 052011

Google has announced that it will no longer use building materials from the Living Building Challenge’s Red List.

The Living Building Challenge is a green building standard that goes beyond LEED by focuses on buildings that not only reduce their effect on the environment, but are based on restorative principles.

The Red List is a list of building materials that include components made from products such as mercury, asbestos, PVC, formaldehyde and lead. These materials are banned in the construction of buildings using the Living Building standard, either for their effect on indoor air quality, or the environmental damage that results from their production.

Google’s adoption of the Red List shows the increasing acceptance of the Living Building Challenge as the leading edge green building standard.

British Firm Creates Carbon Negative Bricks

Green Building Comments Off

Oct 052011

Encos, a firm based in the United Kingdom, has developed a process to make bricks and masonry blocks that are carbon negative.

The bricks are composed of ash, made from incinerated sewage, industrial or commercial waste, and a vegetable-oil based binder. The masonry blocks and bricks reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 120% – 160%. The bricks have passed industry testing for strength, heat, and freezing.

California Company Produces Green Cement

Green Building, Technology Comments Off

Sep 252011

Cement is a vital building material, but one that emits copious amounts of CO2 during its production. Caldera, a company based in California, claims it has created a process that produces cement while reducing CO2 in the air.

The company takes smoke stack emissions from nearby power plants and runs the CO2 through brackish water. The minerals in the water bond with the CO2 to precipitate out limestone, in a similar way to how limestone is created naturally. The end product is cement, hard aggregate, and water that is already one step towards being purified for drinking.

Caldera is now expanding production and preparing to test its cement with industry partners. If the process works, and is economic, then concrete may be the next big green building material.

Smart Glass Saves Energy, Reduces Glare

Technology Comments Off

Sep 232011

Glass is an inefficient building material; it cannot be as well insulated as other materials, and needs more maintenance. However, glass allows building occupants to feel connected to the outside and provides daylight.

Instead of using blinds to control glare and air conditioning or heating to make up for glass’ weak thermal properties, smart glass provides a solution by automatically adjusting its tint to dynamically control the amount of sunlight admitted into the room.

There are three benefits of smart (or electrochromic) glass:

Energy savings, in terms of reducing HVAC and lighting load.
It allows the architect to design buildings more sustainably.
Environmental savings, because you reduce the tonnage of the air conditioning equipment. Those materials don’t need to be there, on-site.

Japanese Manufacturing Group Plants Green Curtains on Walls to Reduce Energy Needs

Green Building Comments Off

Sep 222011

The Kyocera Group, a Japanese manufacturing company, is planting green curtains of climbing plants on the outer walls of 19 of its manufacturing plants and office buildings to achieve its 15 percent energy reduction target. The shade of the green walls reduce temperatures by up to 15 degrees Celsius compared to bare walls, enabling the group to considerably reduce air conditioning expenditures and energy use.

The Kyocera Group has planted green walls that cover 2,479 square meters, which in addition to reducing energy costs, also absorb carbon dioxide and provide vegetables that are served in employee cafeterias.

Alcoa’s New Building Panels Reduce Smog and Self-Clean

Green Building, Technology Comments Off

Sep 062011

Aluminum giant Alcoa has developed a new environmentally friendly building panel called Reynobond with EcoClean.

Reynobond are pre-painted aluminum panels that are coated with EcoClean, a titatium oxide coating that, in combination with sunlight, acts as a catalyst to break down smog and other air pollutants. The panels are also superhydrophilic, so that rain water does not bead on the surface, and instead flows down the building, taking the broken down pollutants with it. Only a small amount of rainfall or humidity is required for this to happen, which means that the building is essentially always being washed. This reduces maintenance costs for the owner.

Alberta Construction Association

New Building System Eliminates Need for Suspended Ceilings

University of Michigan Creates New Ductile Concrete

Building Material Labels Increase Transparency

Concrete Canvas Coming to Canada

Google Will No Longer Use “Red List” Building Materials

British Firm Creates Carbon Negative Bricks

California Company Produces Green Cement

Smart Glass Saves Energy, Reduces Glare

Japanese Manufacturing Group Plants Green Curtains on Walls to Reduce Energy Needs

Alcoa’s New Building Panels Reduce Smog and Self-Clean

Recent Posts

Archives

Contact Information