The construction industry's future will undoubtedly include "carbon reduction" as a mandatory task. Aside from locally sourced, virgin materials, an increasing number of new materials are becoming available. New materials can be developed in several ways, including low-carbon substitution, recycling, performance enhancement, and 3D printing. New materials will not only be more environmentally friendly and enable new construction methods, but they will also influence the starting point and direction of design concepts, resulting in new buildings with new perceptions and spaces.
1. Low-Carbon Substitution
In the building materials industry, low-carbon building materials are the primary way to reduce carbon at the source. The majority of the new low-carbon materials are bio-based materials that use renewable biomass or raw materials obtained through bio-manufacturing, a new class of materials manufactured by biological, chemical, and physical means, such as Dried Fibres of Luffa, Corn Stalks, Mycelium, Micro Algae, and so on. The use of biological or planted materials rather than fossil materials is an important solution for reducing plastic (waste), preventing subsidence, capturing CO2, and reusing agricultural waste.
Dried Fibres of Luffa
The Alive pavilion / The Living
The Living studio's contribution to the 2021 Venice Biennale, The Alive pavilion, explores the potential of multi-species architecture and the best ways to make use of the microorganisms that surround us. The dried fibers of luffa, a fast-growing, low-cost vegetable that grows on vines in tropical and subtropical locations, are used to construct the Alive exhibit. The surface of luffa fibers creates a robust organic material that works well for harbouring a range of microorganisms and is easily modified to create panels or partitions for architectural projects.
Mycelium Panel
The Growing Pavilion / Company New Heroes
The Growing Pavilion is temporary event for Dutch Desing Week made of mycelium panels supported by a wooden frame. The temporary pavilion was commissioned by Company New Heroes and designed by set designer and artist Pascal Leboucq in collaboration with Eric Klarenbeek. The mycelium panels were grown by Grown bio in the Netherlands. The pavilion showcases its unique organic textures and colors to the public, giving bio-based materials a new aesthetic meaning.
2. Recycling
To achieve sustainable development, waste material must be solved through the exploration of recycling and reuse of materials. Construction waste from urban renewal iterations, ceramic waste from ceramic production, difficult-to-degrade plastics, and so on.
Ecopixel® Recycled Thermoplastic Waste-Material
Atelier Mendini and Ecopixel have collaborated on a bold new project for the plastics recycling industry, combining "pixel blocks and recycled plastics." The piece is made up of several 24x24mm "pixel" blocks. At 120°C, this material melts indefinitely without changing its initial properties. It is actually a material made entirely of recycled LDPE, which means it can be remelted indefinitely without losing its properties.
Recycled Ceramic Tiles
“The Regeneration Tree” / YI DESIGN
Clay is the primary component of both ceramic tiles and clay tiles. Every year, more than 10 million tons of ceramics are discarded in China, and these solid wastes not only consume a lot of land resources and energy, such as coal but also have serious carbon emissions that exceed the standard and cause significant environmental harm. The disposal of ceramic waste has become a problem. The Recycled Tree at Design China Beijing, created in collaboration with Italian architect Aldo Cibic, shows visitors a uniquely designed ceramic waste recycled construction material while demonstrating design ideas for how to solve China's serious waste material management problem. The recycled ceramic tiles were collected, researched, crushed, pulverized, mixed, and lab tested.
3. Performance Enhancement
Because of their performance shortcomings, materials such as wood were gradually replaced by steel and cement, but the revival of the old materials is not lost through technological means to improve their performance.
Wooden Bamboo
Living Garden / MAD Architects
" Wooden bamboo" is a new material made of bamboo that is reorganized and reinforced by bamboo, as well as a high-performance bamboo-based fibre composite material developed by China and manufactured using patented technology from the Chinese Academy of Forestry. The tensile strength of " wooden bamboo" is three times that of steel of the same weight, while the cost of mass production is roughly the same and the life expectancy is up to 50 years, thus the name " wooden bamboo."
I-mesh Textile
I-mesh is a technical and environmentally friendly building textile. It is made of long-lasting, high-performance fibers and can be used both indoors and out. Carbon fiber, glass fiber, cheiron, aramid, and basalt fiber are woven into a spider web-like material using resin-impregnated yarns.
4. 3D Print
The maturation of 3D printing technology has changed the way architecture is thought about and expanded design possibilities. The exploration of 3D printing materials has resulted in architectural spaces with varying structures and sensations.3D printing is also extremely beneficial in reducing carbon emissions in terms of material usage and labor.
Fiber Concrete
A Robot-3D Printed Concrete Book Cabin / Professor XU Weiguo's Team
The materials used for the Cabin printing are the fiber concrete developed by the team, which does not add steel bars and does not use formwork. The printing of the Cabin uses 2 sets of robotic arm printing systems, one in situ printing building foundation and main structure, another in situ pre-printing arc wall, and a dome roof. The building surface has two kinds of texture, one is a laminated surface formed by laminated printing, and another is a well-designed woven pattern texture on the sidewall in front of the entrance, letting people have a delicate feeling.
PETG Particles
Moon Architecture researched a variety of 3D printing materials to achieve recyclability, lightweight, high strength, high light transmission, high glossy appearance, corrosion resistance, and UV ageing resistance before deciding to use PETG particles to make ROOTS through 3D printing.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: The Future of Construction Materials. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our ArchDaily topics. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on September 02, 2022.
