Five innovative materials that could change construction

By: Len Williams

Many of today’s most widely used building materials have limitations, especially with regard to their impact on the environment. In response, innovative engineers around the world have developed new building materials that could provide an alternative.

What’s the most widely used manmade material in the world? It surrounds you day and night – when you work, when you’re entertained and when you sleep.

The answer is cement.

Cement, along with other common construction materials such as bricks, wood, steel and glass, is used almost universally in construction. These popular building materials have become so ubiquitous in large part thanks to their versatility, low cost and practicality. Nonetheless, they have their limits.

For instance, the worldwide production of cement amounts to about 5 per cent of human-generated CO2 emissions every year, according to a 2017 study. Brick production is also blamed for a range of ills – including soil degradation from the sourcing of raw materials. And, of course, wood burns, steel rusts, and glass breaks.

In response to these drawbacks, engineers, scientists and start-ups are proposing alternative materials, which they say could help improve on our existing building staples. Here we look at five of the more intriguing ones.

1. 3D-printed bioplastics

Waste is a major problem in the construction industry. Various studies put the quantity of building materials that end up in a skip at anywhere between 20 per cent and 30 per cent – representing an enormous environmental and economic cost.

This is where Dutch firm Aectual believes its bioplastic constructions can make a real difference. The firm uses large 3D printers to build complex and sophisticated designs, from floors to façades, stairs and even entire buildings. Besides using 3D printers to build the buildings, it’s the use of bioplastics which is especially innovative in terms of sustainability and waste reduction.

The firm says the bioplastics used by its 3D printers are made from 100 per cent renewable plant-based polymers, and can also deploy recycled plastics (it should be noted that producing bio-plastics still requires large-scale production of plants such as corn). What’s more, should the printer make a mistake, the plastic can simply be shredded and returned to the mix, resulting in building projects with no waste at all – in theory, at least.

2. ‘Programmable’ cement

When cement (an aggregate made of various materials) is mixed with water, sand and stone and left to dry, it forms concrete – the basis of the vast majority of modern buildings. But concrete is porous, allowing water and chemicals through. This degrades the concrete itself and can lead to rust in any steel supports encased within it. The problem is that on a molecular level, concrete particles form randomly, allowing space for liquid and other compounds to pass through.

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