Policy challenge

The major cost of construction is incurred on building materials and most of these building materials are cement products. The ever increasing price of cement coupled with the rise in the price of other construction materials make the construction cost far from the reach of the low and the middle income group of urban dwellers.

Demand for aluminum in final products has increased 30-fold since 1950 to 45 million tonnes per year, with forecasts predicting this exceptional growth to continue so that demand will reach 2–3 times today’s levels by 2050. Aluminum production uses 3.5% of global electricity and causes 1% of global CO2 emissions, while meeting a 50% cut in emissions by 2050 against growing demand would require at least a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions per tonne of aluminum produced—a challenging prospect.

The environmental consequences of plastic solid waste are visible in the ever-increasing levels of global plastic pollution both on land and in the oceans. But although there are important economic and environmental incentives for plastics recycling, end-of-life treatment options for plastic solid waste are in practice quite limited.

Presorting of plastics before recycling is costly and time-intensive, recycling requires large amounts of energy and often leads to low-quality polymers, and current technologies cannot be applied to many polymeric materials.

The design and production of the facade system can have a significant effect on the embodied carbon of a building.

The transportation of facade materials and components to a factory, between factories, and to the building site can also have a big impact. Understanding this impact is important in determining the optimum design and specification for a low-carbon building.

Author: Make Architects

Demolishing unwanted buildings wastes vast quantities of valuable resources, driving up financial and environmental costs. Deconstruction offers a means of salvaging materials for reuse. It also creates more jobs than demolition, spurs local innovation and industry, preserves local character and heritage, reduces landfill costs and limits the need for virgin (and often carbon-intensive) materials.

The role of plastic materials in construction has become indispensable in the past decades with regard to the global megatrends urbanisation, climate, health, environment and affordable housing. 

In recent years, awareness of the negative impacts of plastic waste and pollution on our environment has heightened. Popular television documentaries, such as the BBC’s Blue Planet II, and mainstream media campaigns have played a significant role in bringing these issues to the forefront of the public’s consciousness.

The focus of this has largely been on single-use plastics from consumer products and packaging. There has been relatively little attention on the use of plastics in construction, both from a short and long-life perspective.

Cross laminated timber (CLT) has become a well-known engineered timber product of global interest. The orthogonal, laminar structure allows its application as a full-size wall and floor element as well as a linear timber member, able to bear loads in- and out-of-plane.

This article provides a state-of-the-art report on some selected topics related to CLT, in particular production and technology, characteristic material properties, design and connections.

Authors:

Renewable and biodegradable materials derived from biomass are attractive candidates to replace non-biodegradable petrochemical plastics. However, the mechanical performance and wet stability of biomass are generally insufficient for practical applications.

Given increasing concerns for the marine environment and human health, as well as trade restrictions from Asian countries, plastics have become a great challenge for the United States.

This study addresses the seven commonly used plastics: low-density polyethylene/linear low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and other plastics.