Political Ecology

Studies show that a changing climate could have a significant impact on the deterioration of stone and brick buildings.Building deterioration is often caused by water from the ground rising up through the stone. As water evaporates, salts are left behind which crystallise at the surface. Damage can also be caused by the physical impact of [...]

London-based designer Yemi Awosile has developed a new fabric from an innovative combination of repurposed cork and elastane. Cork Fabric is suited to interior design applications such as upholstery, wall coverings, and wall panels, and benefits from the high elasticity of elastane fiber as well as the acoustic and thermal insulating properties found in cork. [...]

The extraordinary chemical and physical properties of materials at the nanometer scale enable novel applications ranging from structural strength enhancement and energy conservation to antimicrobial properties and self-cleaning surfaces. Consequently, manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) and nanocomposites are being considered for various uses in the construction and related infrastructure industries. To achieve environmentally responsible nanotechnology in construction, [...]

This construction industry is responsible for over 30% of the total industrial CO2 emission in Korea, and bearing wall apartment housing represents more than 50% of all housing in Korea. A new multi-residential Modularized Hybrid System (MHS) for construction of apartment housing may reduce the amounts of construction material used as well as the amounts [...]

Making cement for concrete involves heating pulverized limestone, clay, and sand to 1,450 °C with a fuel such as coal or natural gas. The process generates a lot of carbon dioxide: making one metric ton of commonly used Portland cement releases 650 to 920 kilograms of it. The 2.8 billion metric tons of cement produced [...]

Naji Khoury, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Temple, uses a mixture of recyclable plastic bottles and soil to create “Plastisoil,” a trademarked product he describes as an impervious cementing agent. When mixed with course aggregate and heated, it produces what Khoury calls “porous Plastisoil,” which functions like pervious concrete and porous [...]

An attempt to substitute in concrete the 5% by weight of fine aggregate (natural sand) with an equal weight of PET aggregates manufactured from the waste un-washed PET bottles (WPET), is presented. The WPET particles possessed a granulometry similar to that of the substituted sand. Specimens with different cement content and water/cement ratio were manufactured. [...]