News

Arnhildur Palmadottir proposes building cities from lava Icelandic architect Arnhildur Palmadottir has revealed her "radical and gigantic" Lavaforming proposal at this year's DesignMarch festival in Reykjavík. Lavaforming would see controlled lava eruptions being used to create buildings, which according to the designer would be substantially more sustainable than those built with steel and concrete. "Lava is the building material of the earth, but instead of letting landscapes form naturally over millions of years we can take over Earth's building process and produce a whole city for humans in a few weeks," Palmadottir told Dezeen. "It would mean that we have...

MIT engineers invent plastic that is stronger than steel Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineers have invented a new type of plastic that is twice as strong as steel and could one day be used as a building material. Dubbed 2DPA-1, the material is light and mouldable like plastic but has a strength and resistance that the researchers behind the project liken to steel and bulletproof glass. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers envision 2DPA-1 being used in the near future as a coating to enhance the durability of objects, and eventually as a structural material. "We don't usually...

To boost renovation, EU wants to reset single market for construction materials The EU's single market for construction products has been largely defunct, something the European Commission wants to change and make it more environmentally friendly in the process. [Shutterstock/Parilov] Languages: Deutsch Faced with growing pressure to renovate homes and reduce energy demand for heating, the European Commission has tabled a proposal to revitalise the EU’s moribund market for construction products. Getting as many homes built or renovated as fast as possible has never been more urgent because of the war in Ukraine. “We need to reduce our dependence on...

New discovery in animal exoskeletons leads to advances in designing construction materials Researchers from Monash University have discovered a new design motif derived from the rigid external covering of invertebrates that may help create more damage tolerant materials for future building and construction. In a paper published in Nature Communications, Professor Wenhui Duan from the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University says the new pattern, adding to the eight known and common biological structural design patterns, can add a high strength motif to commonly used building materials such as composites and cement, and may help reduce carbon emissions. The...

Building Materials – A Hidden Heavyweight for Climate Action The “embodied carbon” in buildings comes primarily from the energy-intensive production of cement, steel, aluminum, glass and insulation materials. The Programme for Energy Efficiency in Buildings has published a working paper presenting practical strategies to reduce embodied carbon in buildings. In 2022, the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction will use advocacy and research to elevate building materials and embodied carbon on the global agenda. By Anna Zinecker, PEEB (Bonn/GIZ), and Jérémy Bourgault, PEEB (Paris/AFD) An era of massive construction is currently underway, with a new area the size of Paris...