Natural Building Materials for Sustainable Architecture

As sustainability has being adopted into the standard ways people manage their lifestyles, architecture lately has begun to embrace it as a standard.

Building construction and related processes continue to be major forces on the earth – these utilize a very high percentage of carbon emission.

One area of suggestion is the employment of natural building materials in construction since they are environmentally friendly compared to conventional materials.

Beside these it adds benefits that minimizes the impact on the environment and at same time creates healthier environments.

Below, we explore three key areas of natural building materials that can redefine sustainable architecture: soil based products, products from renewable sources, and products from bio-based chemicals respectively.

Earthen Materials: Returning to the Basics

Rammed Earth: Durable and Timeless

Rammed earth construction has been around for thousands of years but is currently, again, used in sustainable architecture.

A mold with a damp earth, clay and in some cases stabilizers such as cement is pressed to form a solid wall.

As such, it yields a rigid wall with thermal characteristics that survive centuries, given adequate preservation.

The thermal properties of the rammed earth relates to improved indoor temperatures by the walls acting like a thermal buffer and acting as a storage for heat during the day and heat during the night.

At the same time, rammed earth has a well-defined look: it looks layered and striated, which gives extra visual interest to structures.

As a natural building material it is environmentally friendly, it is also nontoxic so it provides a good healthy and enclosed space without the products of synthetic based materials.

Cob: Creative and Flexible

Cob is also a conventional construction material, which is made out of sand, clay, straw and water.

It has been employed in the past in different parts of the world and is now being retried over and over again since it is economical to use and eco friendly building material in addition to its ability to be changed and altered to suit the needs and requirements of a certain area. , cob is easily molded, therefore this greatly enhances the architectural aspect because builders can fashion cob in to a given design.

Cob walls are ideal for insulation, and they may be used to create room temperatures that do not necessarily require use of energy, often.

Cob construction is a slow method as it requires a lot of people’s power, but its cost is very low, especially in cases when owners are ready to take an active part in construction. This not only makes cob an eco-friendly option for small homes or cabins, or even as choice material of a colorful or characteristic wall in a more substantial home, but also because of the reduced carbon footprint of locally-sourced materials.

Renewable Resources: Sustainable Solutions

Bamboo: Strong and Rapidly Renewable

Bamboo having high tensile strength and flexibility is commonly called ‘nature’s steel’.

This type of bamboo is much faster to grow compared with normal timber, and there are some species that are ready for harvesting in three to five years.

This means that bamboo qualifies as a fast growing species, which is excellent especially in light of the fact that it is genuine renewable material.

Bamboo may be used as frames, posts, beams, flooring and panels when used in construction.

It is light in weight and long-lasting, thus decreasing the carbon footprint of the elements used, while being shipped and fixed.

Bamboo is an eco friendly building material and can suit the modern world kind of style due to its nature.

As technology and architectural design improve on ways and means of treating bamboo, this natural product has even greater uses in green construction.

It helps regulate cases of deforestation besides encouraging proper utilization of the country’s land resources.

Cork: The Multi-Purpose Marvel

Cork was obtained from the outer surface of the trunk by using the bark of cork oak trees, which can be stripped again later after some time of recovery therefore making it green.

As for its characteristics, cork is useful for different kinds of constructions: floor, walls, and insulating materials.

Due to its cellular structure, it can guarantee very low conductivity of heat and sound making the interiors more energy efficient.

Cork is also naturally inclined to fight mold, fire, and insects which in one way or another makes the structures created from cork safe and long-lasting.

Cork Obtaining does not damage the trees that continue to soak up another CO2, again stressing the environmental friendliness of cork.

Innovative Bio-Based Solutions: The Future of Natural Building Materials

Hempcrete: Lightweight and Carbon-Negative

Hempcrete is a biomorphic material consisting of hemp stem with an incorporation of lime-based mortar.

It is steadily finding its place in the sustainable architecture because of its light weightiness, insulation, and carbon negativity.

In the growth phase, hemp fixes a high amount of carbon in the atmosphere, which could be described as the amount that industrialization puts out.

Hempcrete is very porous; thus, it does not retain water: this makes it excellent for good indoor air quality.

While not as strong as normal concrete when used for load bearing purposes hempcrete is slightly better suited to non-load bearing walls and insulation.

One of the advantages of structures designed with some flexibility is that they are capable of withstanding minor ground movements and thus avoiding the formation of cracks in the buildings thus avoiding extra costs of maintenance in future.

Mycelium-Based Materials: Nature’s Builder

Among the most creative trends in the construction of environmentally friendly buildings, it is worth highlighting the use of mycelium —the root system of fungi.

Mycelium based materials are created by using agricultural residues and spores of fungi that stabilize the material.

They are natural building materials, have a low density and provide good thermal and acoustic insulations.

Using the policy that structures built with mycelium bricks and panels are non-load bearing makes a lot of sense as it applies to modular and temporary structures.

The production is energy efficient and could even consume other wastes from other industries thus embracing the circular Economy System.

Conclusion

Sustainable architecture cannot be overemphasized due to the call for minimal implementation of policies that hinder environmental conservation acts.

More conventional sustainable building materials including rammed earth, cob, bamboo, cork, hempcrete, and mycelium are pro-active in this set-up.

These natural building materials allow us to design much better, more efficient, and more beautiful environments than the unhealthy and unsafe ones we are learning about in this course.

Technological advancement and methods ensure that natural elements are incorporated into today’s society as we aspire to a better and harmonious architectural world.

Also read: The Pros and Cons of Using Sustainable Building Materials