materials

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that Katrina trailers emitted four to eleven times as much formaldehyde as one might get in conventional housing. There are rules restricting the amount of formaldehyde that can be emitted in mobile homes, but not in wheeled trailers. According to the Washington Post:

Berkeley researchers said they found "exceptionally large emissions of formaldehyde" in units tested and traced the chemical's presence to extensive use of cheap, light plywood and particleboard for walls, flooring and cabinet surfaces. At the same time, trailers "are not outfitted for adequate ventilation and are tighter than would be desir...

Image from angus_mac_123

We've all seen the length to which China has gone in order to burnish its environmental credentials ahead of the Olympics. Whether it be building sparkling new sustainable facilities for the Games or "forcing" good weather through unconventional means, China has been doing its utmost to ensure it not be perceived as eco-insensitive. The big question, however, remains: Will it stay green?

Ray Anderson started his company, Interface, back in the 1970s to make carpet. Like any business man, he wanted to shake up the market and make a healthy profit, which he’s done, and Interface now has 17 manufacturing locations on four continents. But this is not business as usual. Not anymore. Since having a sustainability epiphany, as he calls it, Ray has starting steering Interface toward one hell of a goal: zero negative effects on the planetary ecosystem by the year 2020, a goal he admits no corporation has yet reached. TreeHugger has long found inspiration in Interface’s elegant design solutions—products li...

Image credit: Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

Aerogel was invented in 1931. But at $3000 per kilogram, it's use has been limited to visionary projects and unique structural applications like reinforcement of tennis raquets. But that could change soon. Halimaton Hamdan, a Cambridge-trained professor of chemistry at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Technical University of Malaysia), has announced the discovery of a cheap process for turning waste rice husks into aerogel. Actually into "Maerogel", as Hamdan has dubbed the "Malaysian aerogel"....

Jonasrisen at the always interesting Greenline does a wonderful job of collecting the most obvious and awful greenwashing ads in the architectural press, starting with the most egregious of them all, the hippie ad for LG Eden countertops. He writes:

"Advertising has an especially important role in presenting the idea of sustainability. Used properly, it can educate and activate the public to make the better decision for themselves and the world around them. Used ineffectively, advertising can ...

Explosives as strong as metal - until they are detonated - are the latest theoretical technology to be desired by US defence research agency DARPA.Their main interest is to have the currently non-explosive bits of bullets and shells - like the metal casings - do some work instead of littering the ground when fired. But I think this technology could see other uses.DARPA's solicitation says they need to be capable of withstanding high stresses, and also be able to be "controllably stimulated to produce substantial blast energy."Such materials will likely start off as extremely expensive, but imagine the fun you could have building big stuff with it. Need to demolish that bridge or building?

Silicon Valley Business Journal

Back in the days, when you wanted a wall you put up wood or metal lath, hired very skilled labour and took a long time to plaster a wall. Then plasterboard lath came along and eliminated the base coat, and soon drywall replaced that, giving us the crappy half-inch thick soundboard that is made of gypsum and embodied energy and passes for a wall today.

Kevin Surace is the CEO of Serious Materials, the maker of serious soundproofing technologies and the soon-to-be-launched EcoRock

Ooooh, there is nothing lovelier than a floor-to-ceiling window, and there are few better ways to waste energy, given the low R-value of most glass. Until now, that is, when you can throw electricity out the window with Thermique. This new invention burns up to 25 watts of electricity per square foot by turning the glass into an electric heater . They say it is more energy efficient because it eliminates drafts, and the conventional heating system doesn't have to work as hard." With heated windows, you can lower the set-back temperature for your HVAC system without changing the indoor temperature. The g...

One of the people excited about NSW’s newly legal industrial hemp crops is researcher Klara Marosszeky. She has been developing a commercial viable hemp building material, and will now be able to source her raw materials locally rather than trucking them all the way across the country.

A project of Klara’s has been hemp concrete. Mixing hemp hurds (the pithy core of the stem) with a lime-based binder, plus water and a little sand, sets off a chemical reaction akin to petrification. The fibre becomes a mineral and sets like cement and can be moulded into robust building blocks. Thes...

Commercially legal crops of industrial hemp have been approved for the Australian state of New South Wales. The NSW Minister for Primary Industries reckons the approval could open up “the establishment of a new viable industry” for the state.

“For example, it could be used as an additive to wool in soft textured durable yarns, for insulation, as an alternative to fibreglass, in paper products and textiles and also for load bearing masonry for building. Hemp seed oil can also be used as a base for skin care products and paints.”...

Breezehouse - A Greener Building. Credit:: James Watts and CNET.

Phaedra Svec, an associate in the Elements division of BNIM Architects is featured in an article on Greener Buildings discussing the seven steps she created as an interim alternative to life cycle assessment in the building industry since a comprehensive

Photo Credit: Loop.ph

It looks like Loop.ph, a UK-based design research studio, has (re)created the perfect tree: by day, it offers shelter from the sun: by night, it sheds light for the local community, using the energy collected in solar cells embedded in its canopy. Its name: Sonumbra. It is a ‘sonic shade of light’ as the designers Rachel Wingfield & Mathias Gmachl like to describe it. ...