Like many industries, house builders in Horsham and Sussex
are ever on the lookout for ways to improve.
This is in response to customer demand for greener housing as well as
the need to be as efficient as possible.
A number of innovative new materials are now being developed
that could have a significant impact on all areas of the building industry,
from architectural design and services in Reigate, through to final build
solutions across the county. The building
materials can be used in smaller projects such as loft conversions and home
extensions, or major housing projects in larger urban developments in places
such as Horsham or Crawley.
While the new developments are exciting in themselves there
is an issue in how to bring them to market in a “joined up” way. The building materials are being researched
and manufactured in various locations around the world, and a co-ordinated
effort by the UK government and building industries would do much to make them
available to local companies in the near future.
Here are a few of the more intriguing materials that may
find their way on to Sussex construction sites.
Bamboo-Reinforced Concrete
While bamboo is not a traditional construction material for
places like Reigate and Crawley, it has long been proven in Asia. Bamboo’s properties of being strong,
lightweight and fast growing are now making is a very attractive option for a
number of applications and many in the architectural services sector are keen
to incorporate it where possible.
One very promising use of bamboo currently being researched
in Switzerland is as replacement for steel bars to re-enforce concrete. The material produced is a made up of a mix
of bamboo fibres and an organic resin.
This makes sure the bamboo will not degrade or rot over time, and
because bamboo also absorbs large amounts of CO2 it is proving to be a viable green
option rather than the heavy carbon footprint of steel.
Aluminium Foam
Aluminium foam panels are created by injecting air into the
metal while it is still in a molten state. When the aerated metal cools and hardens,
it forms its shape around the pockets of air, and this gives it a high
strength-to-weight ratio. So as well as
being attractive it is also very lightweight, and has the added benefit of
being completely recyclable. This is demonstrated with all the initial material
being made from 50% recycled materials in the first place.
The foam has already been used as cladding on a number of
building and construction projects.
Ultimate Upcycling for Reigate
Biochar is the name of the waste product produced when trees
are burned in kilns for energy. When
wood is burnt this way, only while 50 per cent of the material is converted to
heat energy, the remainder becomes biochar.
Anti-Fire/Anti-Mobile Phone Plywood
A UK company has found a way create a multi-purpose building
material that has huge potential for use in public building projects.
By immersing the layers of wood used to create plywood in a
specialised fire retardant that works by blocking oxygen, when the plywood
layers are compressed together the panels will not burn, even when saw for
construction. By then coating the
plywood with an acrylic emulsion paint that contains graphene, the finished
panels have very strong radiation-shielding properties, allow them to block
mobile phone and television signals.
This makes this type of treated plywood ideal for hospitals
and schools.
Bio-receptive Concrete – Working with Nature in Reigate and Crawley
Sussex towns such as Crawley and Horsham, and particularly
coastal urban areas such as Reigate are susceptible to moss and lichen. These natural growths can be unsightly as
they grow in patches, but there is new school of thought that proposes rather
than spending significant amounts of money and using harmful chemicals to get
rid of the problem, why not make them an architectural feature.
That is the idea behind biologically receptive concrete,
which has been geometrically designed to promote the growth of mosses in specific
selected areas of the material. The
notion could even be a practical, low maintenance, alternative to large-scale
green walls, which are often expensive to maintain.
Transparent Wood
Building designers and companies involved in architectural
services have long looked for practical alternatives to glass. Plastics go some way to offering an economic
replacement, but becomes too opaque when manufactured in any thickness that
provides sufficient strength or insulation.
So there is more than a little interest in recent research
that has found a way to remove a component of wood known as lignin, and replace
it with a synthetic polymer. Doing this
means that a strip of the modified wood 1 mm thick becomes 85 per cent
transparent while still retaining its original strength. At the same time, the thermal properties of
the wood are much better than glass.
The research is still in the early stages, but the potential
for a new alternative to glass is very much there.
