15 New Building Materials Changing How We Build.

Building materials have been evolving since the time man started building. New building Materials are the requirement of the future. We started building with mud, wood and stone masonry, which are magnificent building materials, and gradually progressed to Lime Concrete, Cement Concrete, Burnt Bricks and Steel.

Although Concrete and Steel are the best material available today but ever increasing demand and large-scale usage of these materials put pressure on our mother earth. We must come up with new, innovative, sustainable and new building materials that are durable and also consume fewer resources.

While it may take some time for scientific breakthroughs to innovate perfect building materials but new sets of materials having better properties are always coming. Here are 25 New Construction Materials that could change the construction industry the way it is today.

Self Healing Concrete

Today’s concrete has one serious problem, it may crack due to various circumstances. Repairing and retrofitting the cracked concrete is difficult and some expert workmanship is required. How will it be if the cracked concrete gets repaired itself, sounds interesting?

The Researchers are on track to developing such concrete that can be repaired, called Self Healing Concrete. There are various methods of self-healing methods e.g. capsule-based self-healing method, vascular self-healing method, electrodeposition self-healing method, microbial self-healing method, and self-healing method through embedding shape memory alloys.

Special Materials like fibres or capsules are added to the concrete. These capsules contain some adhesive liquids and when the concrete cracks, these capsule break and liquid within the capsule starts coming out and forms solid material in the cracked portion.

Modular Bamboo

Bamboo is a superb building material. Increasing pressure on the environment demands the use of sustainable materials like bamboo. It is used as scaffolding in buildings, for making houses, bridges and numerous things which you can imagine. It is highly flexible, giving the opportunity to make various items through this.

Bamboo has higher tensile strength per unit weight than steel. It is 2-3 times more flexible than steel for the same weight. It is available in abundance around the globe. If treated, it can last very long. It can be moulded to any shape and size and is also aesthetically appealing.

Most notable, while producing Bamboo, till maturity, it will produce 30% more oxygen than other plants on the other hand producing steel will consume so much energy and will pollute and degrade the environment.

Spider Silk

Nature is the best Architect and if we observe the marvellous things nature offers us, we can successfully find the materials of the future. One such material is spider silk. It has high strength, superb elasticity and excellent toughness which is beyond comparison with natural and synthetic fibres.

Spider silk is 5 times stronger than steel, 3 times stronger than aramid, and 2 times more flexible than nylon. It is the best material produced by the nature. The only problem is that Spiders do not like to live in a group thus we cannot extract large quantities of spider silk.

A solution to this problem could be that we can study the spider silk structures and principles and apply the same to man-made materials to devise material of the future which is strong enough to be used as a building material.

3D Graphene

Graphene is a single layer (2D) of carbon atoms bound in a honeycomb lattice. Researchers have produced 3D Graphene by compressing and fusing flakes of Graphene. This 3D Graphene has a sponge-like configuration and is 10 times stronger than Steel. Graphene in its 2D form is the strongest of all known materials today but we were unable to combine this 2D to 3D material.

Now that 3D Graphene has been invented and its geometrical configuration has more to do than the material itself it implies that similar lightweight and strong materials could be made from different materials available today.

Laminated Timber

Laminated timber is made by joining two boards to form a single unit thus increasing its strength. Based on the type and method of lamination there are various laminated timbers available today e.g. Cross Laminated timber, Glue laminated timber, Nail laminated timber, Dowel laminated timber and Laminated veneer lumber.

Laminated timbers are stronger than conventional timbers and overcome the inconsistency offered by conventional timber. It can be used for long-span and curved structures as well. Besides its flexibility, it offers a great aesthetic appearance. It can be customized to different shapes as per requirement.

Aerographite

Aerographite is one of the lightest materials invented by scientists today. It is 75 times lighter than styrofoam but it is extremely strong. Aerographite performs wonderfully under stress. It can withstand large compressing force and can return to its original shape and size even after compression up to 95%, that too without any damage.

Translucent Wood

As the name suggests translucent wood is a wood through which light can pass. But you may think wood is opaque how can one make translucent wood? Wood contains at least 25% lignin. In Translucent wood, this lignin is replaced with polymers and the wood is compressed.

This treated wood is as strong as natural wood but much lighter. This translucent wood has many applications. One-third of the world’s energy gets consumed in the building sector mainly for artificial lighting and insulation. This wood has applications in green buildings where it can be used to entertain the natural lights in the home and also works as an insulation layer.

Unlike glass which is a bad insulator, translucent wood serves the purpose of lighting as well as insulation. Also, it has low embodied energy, unlike glass.

Light emitting Concrete

Light-emitting concrete is concrete which emits light. Why do we need light-emitting concrete? A large amount of energy gets wasted in lighting highways, bicycle lanes, roads, walkways etc. Light-emitting concrete absorbs the sunlight during the day and emits light at the night. This cement can light continuously for 12 hours thus eliminating the use of electricity to illuminate the roads at night.

Aluminium Foam

Aluminium foam is a foam made of aluminium. Around 95% of the volume of the material contains voids. Aluminium foam is highly durable and lightweight. It inherits all the properties of aluminium like heat and corrosion resistance, high strength and electrical conductivity.

Aluminium foam is exceptionally strong and can absorb large amounts of mechanical energy when deformed. It is widely used as lightweight construction material. Sometimes two sheets are placed on the foam to make an aluminium foam sandwich panel. Besides its strong behaviour, it can absorb noise also. Thus it is used for acoustic absorption.

It is heat resistant also and it does not collect dust that’s why it is popular in construction industries.

Wool brick

As the name suggests it is a normal clay brick reinforced with wool fibres. If the brick is already strong then why do we need to add wool to the bricks? The researchers wanted to create bricks which are more sustainable, non-toxic, made from locally available materials and more importantly have better strength than conventional unfired bricks.

Wool fibres increase the strength of the bricks, reduce the possibility of cracks and deformation upon drying and reduce drying time. It doesn’t require firing thus saving energy and is more sustainable than fired bricks.

Invisible Solar Panels

Solar cells are the greatest invention of mankind. With an ever-increasing population and rising demand for energy, more clean energy is required for sustenance and what could be more clean energy than the Sun? Solar energy if harnessed properly can produce enough energy to sustain life on earth.

But a major problem is there, it works only if the sun is available. Because of this limitation, we were forced to keep solar panels on the rooftop having limited space. If we could develop panels which work as glass then we could harness enough energy for that building.

Researchers have developed such panels which are transparent. Solar light consists of the visible end of the spectrum and the invisible part (infrared and ultraviolet). These new panels let the visible spectrum, pass through them and harness energy from the invisible spectrum.

By making these solar panels transparent they could be fit into numerous places, like the windows of buildings, and windscreens of cars, it will generate energy and the glass look just like normal glass. This is a brilliant invention of this century.

Transparent Aluminium

Aluminium has been used as a building material because it is light and strong. Transparent Aluminium is transparent in nature. It is also called Aluminium Oxynitride and it is made of aluminate powder alloys. When Aluminium becomes transparent it can be put to some interesting use like infrared optical windows, military equipment, and electronic components.

It can endure up to 1200 degree celsius of temperature and remains solid. It is 3 times more strong than steel for the same thickness. It can be used as in an infrared window, for armoured windows and optical lenses, for making bulletproof glasses and in semiconductor-related equipment.

Pollution Absorbing Bricks

Pollution-absorbing bricks also known as “Breathe Bricks” works on the basic principle of air filtration. It filters the outside air and lets the pure come in. The cyclone filter is cast into the breath bricks. This filter enables the air the swirl and form a cyclone which separates the pollutants and dust particles. The filtered air allows the air to move inside the pollutants sent at the base of the wall in a hopper which needs to be cleaned regularly.

Rammed Earth

Rammed earth construction has been in use since time immemorial but it is still relevant today. It is such a brilliant technique which will be used extensively in the future. In this technique load bearing walls are made using earth and sometimes stabilized earth (soil mixed with 5-7% of cement).

The mixture is mixed with water and compacted thoroughly with tempers or some mechanical temping device resulting in a beautiful layered wall which is aesthetically appealing at the same time strong to sustain the load of the construction.

CABKOMA Strand Rod

Japan-based Komatsu Seiten Fabric Laboratory has invented a Carbon fibre composite called CABKOMA Strand rod which is used to protect buildings from earthquakes. These carbon strands can make an interlocking webbing system that can transfer the earthquake force directly to the ground.

These rods possess high strength and are corrosion-resistant, lightweight, and possess high durability. They are light in weight and thus can be transported easily. This rod can be reformed by heating even after it is hardened.

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