Types of Construction
When you’re looking for building materials, buying locally instead of ordering from afar has many advantages for your local community and the environment. You will be contributing to lowering carbon emission levels and saving resources by reducing the carbon miles involved in transporting the goods and you should also save [...]
People have built homes using straw, grass, or reed throughout history. During the late 1800s on the American plains however, straw bales houses were a matter of necessity; there was no lumber for construction. Now, with the rise in interest in sustainable housing, there's been a revival in straw bale [...]
Although housing with wood frames is very common in many parts of the world (America, for example), it's not often found in Britain these days. Yet it's a very durable form (the oldest standing timber building in the U.K. dates from the 12th century). It's a good, sustainable resource (at [...]
Once you have stepped into a ger or yurt, and experienced the freedom of life within its circular space, or enjoyed a night's sleep within one, then you will know what it is like to get a sense of nomadic life, in a portable, highly individual and protective, and ultimately [...]
Earth construction is the practice of building with unfired, untreated, raw earth. It has been successfully used around the world for over 11,000 years, and it is estimated that around half the world's population today live and work in earth buildings. Types of Earth Building The techniques and methods for [...]
Underground construction has been around for thousands of years, mostly developed through mining and more recently through transport, housing and commercial industries. The Channel Tunnel, London Underground, British Library, and various shopping centres are all examples of underground construction. Underground housing (sometimes called earth sheltered housing) refers specifically to homes [...]
Stone has been used as a building material for thousands of years. It has long been recognised as a material of great durability and superior artistic quality, the foremost choice for buildings associated with status, power and religion. The pyramids in Giza, burial chambers in the UK and temples in [...]
Bricks are blocks of clay that have been hardened through being fired in a kiln or dried in the sun. Over time, kiln-fired bricks have grown more popular than sun-dried bricks, although both are still found worldwide. Bricks have been in continual use for around 5000 years, and brickwork from [...]
