ALTERNATIVE

MATERIALS

PREPARED BY:

AGCAOILI, LOUELLA BS- ARCHITETURE 4A

ORENCE, FHIRSKY JUNHE
SALVILLA, MA. YLLEANORE

SUBMITTED TO :

ARCH. ROSALEA V. AJESTA

What is Alternative Material?

 Alternative natural materials are natural materials like rock or adobe that
are not as commonly in use as materials such as wood or iron.
 Alternative natural materials have many practical uses in areas such as
sustainable architecture and engineering.
 The main purpose of using such materials is to minimize the negative
effects that our built environment can have on the planet while increasing
the efficiency and adaptability of the structures.

TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE MATERIALS:

1. STRAW BALES
- Rather than relying on new research and technology, straw bale building
hearkens back to the days when homes were built from natural, locally-
occurring materials. Straw bales are used to create a home’s walls inside
of a frame, replacing other building materials such as concrete, wood,
gypsum, plaster, fiberglass, or stone. When properly sealed, straw bales
naturally provide very high levels of insulation for a hot or cold climate,
and are not only affordable but sustainable as straw is a rapidly
renewable resource.

2. GRASSCRETE
- As its name might indicate, grasscrete is a method of laying concrete
flooring, walkways, sidewalks, and driveways in such a manner that there
are open patterns allowing grass or other flora to grow. While this provides
the benefit of reducing concrete usage overall, there’s also another
important perk — improved stormwater absorption and drainage.

3. RAMMED EARTH
- What’s more natural than the dirt under your feet? In fact, walls that have
a similar feel to concrete can actually be created with nothing more than
dirt tamped down very tightly in wooden forms. Rammed earth is a
technology that has been used by human civilization for thousands of
years, and can last a very long time. Modern rammed earth buildings can
 be made safer by use of rebar or bamboo, and mechanical tampers
reduce the amount of labor required to create sturdy walls.

4. HEMPCRETE
- is just what it sounds like – a concrete like material created from the
woody inner fibers of the hemp plant. The hemp fibers are bound with
lime to create concrete-like shapes that are strong and light. HempCrete
blocks are super-lightweight, which can also dramatically reduce the
energy used to transport the blocks, and hemp itself is a fast-growing,
renewable resource.

5. BAMBOO
- bamboo might seem trendy, but it has actually been a locally-sourced
building material in some regions of the world for millennia. What makes
bamboo such a promising building material for modern buildings is its
combination of tensile strength, light weight, and fast-growing renewable
nature. Used for framing buildings and shelters, bamboo can replace
expensive and heavy imported materials and provide an alternative to
concrete and rebar construction, especially in difficult-to reach areas,
post-disaster rebuilding, and low-income areas with access to natural
locally-sourced bamboo.
6. ADOBE
- is an age-old technique that is cheap, easy to obtain, and ideal for hot
environments. A mixture of sand, clay, and water is poured into a mold
and left in the sun to dry. When dried, it is exceptionally strong and heat-
resistant. Adobe doesn’t let much heat through to the inside of the
structure, thus providing excellent insulation during the summer to reduce
energy costs. Although this clay mixture provides excellent insulation from
heat, it is not very waterproof and can be dangerous in earth-quake
prone areas due to its tendency to crack easily.

7. SAWDUST
- is a good material to combine with clay or cement mixtures and use for
walls. These walls turn out surprisingly sturdy and effectively recycle any
trees that may need to be excavated from the building area. Depending
what type of sawdust used (hardwood is best) the wood chips in the walls
absorb moisture and help prevent cracking during freeze/thaw cycles.[1]
Sawdust may be combined with water and frozen to produce a material
commonly known as pykrete, which is strong, and less prone to melting
than regular ice.
8. EARTH SHELTERING
- is a unique building technique in which buildings are completely
constructed on at least one side by some form of Earth whether it be a
grass roof, clay walls, or both. This unique system usually includes plenty of
windows because of the difficulty involved with using too much electricity
in such a house. This adds to the energy efficiency of the house by
reducing lighting costs.

9. PAPERCRETE
- is an interesting and very new material that is a good substitute for
concrete. Papercrete is shredded paper, sand, and cement mixed
together that forms a very durable brick-like material. Buildings utilizing
papercrete are very well-insulated as well as being termite- and fire-
resistant. Papercrete is very cheap as it usually only costs about $0.35 per
square foot.

10. CORDWOOD
- is a combination of small remnants of firewood and other lumber that
usually go to waste. These small blocks of wood can easily be put
together to make a structure that, like stone, has great insulation as well
as thermal mass. Cordwood provides the rustic look of log cabins without
the use of tons of lumber. You can build an entire building with just
cordwood or use stones to fill in the walls.
11. RECYCLED PLASTICS
- Instead of mining, extracting, and milling new components, researchers
are creating concrete that includes ground up recycled plastics and
trash, which not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but reduces
weight and provides a new use for landfill-clogging plastic waste.

12. WOOD
- plain old wood still retains many advantages over more industrial building
materials like concrete or steel. Not only do trees absorb CO2 as they
grow, they require much less energy-intensive methods to process into
construction products. Properly managed forests are also renewable and
can ensure a biodiverse habitat.

13. FERROCK
- is a new material being researched that uses recycled materials including
steel dust from the steel industry to create a concrete-like building
 material that is even stronger than concrete. What’s more, this unique
material actually absorbs and traps carbon dioxide as part of its drying
and hardening process – making it not only less CO2 intensive than
traditional concrete, but actually carbon neutral.

TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE METHODS:

1. Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)

- They are rigid foam insulation sandwiched between two OSB panels. They
can be used structurally and create a wall or roof system with no thermal
bridging. These buildings are extremely airtight and have very high r-value,
resulting in superior thermal performance in a relatively thin wall. Multistory
buildings can be done, but there are structural limitations to the panels as
well as fire rated assemblies that need to be addressed for larger
commercial use. SIPs can also be used as infill wall panels on frame
structures.
2. Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs)
- They are continuous rigid foam panels that are used as concrete forms
and left in place after the pour to create a wall that has both thermal
mass as well as high r-value. Some contractors use these only for
foundations, but entire structures can be built from them. These buildings
are extremely quiet and thermally outstanding. Roof systems would have
to be SIP, truss or rafter, so proper detailing is key. Cons are that local
concrete costs can drive price per square foot significantly and
these buildings are not easy to modify with conventional tools once built.
3. Radiant wall systems
- These are similar to ICFs, only the rigid insulation is an interior layer,
sandwiched by the concrete layers. This places the durable concrete
layer on the exterior and a layer of thermal mass inside the insulation layer,
which results in a superior assembly. The interior layer of concrete also has
hydronic heat tubing in it, so they can serve as the heating distribution for
the building. These walls have to be formed by a special crew trained in
the system and as a result, will be more costly. Radiant wall systems are
even more difficult than ICFs to modify once built due to the
embedded hydronic tubing.
4. Steel Metal Buildings
- Is a metal structure fabricated with steel for the internal support and for
exterior cladding, as opposed to steel framed buildings which generally
use other materials for floors, walls, and external envelope. You choose or
create your own plan, send it to a company and they cut the frame of
the house from steel in the factory according to your plan. Then the cut
steel is delivered to your lot together with all the required hardware and
the builders start to erect the frame over your foundation.
5. Precast Concrete
- It is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable
mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment,
transported to the construction site and lifted into place ("tilt up"). In
contrast, standard concrete is poured into site-specific forms and cured
on site. Precast stone is distinguished from precast concrete using a
fine aggregate in the mixture, so the final product approaches the
appearance of naturally occurring rock or stone. More
recently expanded polystyrene is being used as the cores to precast wall
panels. This is lightweight and has better thermal insulation.

6. Cob Homes
- One of the oldest methods, and probably one of the most misunderstood,
Cob has nothing to do with corn cobs. It is actually an earthen wall
method of construction made of balls of mud and straw (Old English
cobs) that are hand packed. This very labor intensive method of
construction uses the cheapest of materials provided the native soils on
the site are suitable. Walls can be scuplted in organic forms and need to
be finished with a waterproof exterior so the rain won’t melt the structure
away. The walls have very high thermal mass, which makes up for their
relatively low r-value. There are structural limitations on cob construction,
so a frame of some kind may be necessary for multistory or larger
buildings.

7. Rammed Earth
- Of the earthen techniques, Rammed Earth is seeing the strongest
resurgence today. Made of a suitable recipe of soil that is compressed
into a mold, the resulting walls are strong and durable. Like the other
earthen methods, high thermal mass offsets low r-value, and the walls are
generally much thicker. The resulting walls are very beautiful as you see
the strata of the material as it was compressed into the form. These walls
are significantly stronger than Adobe and Cob, and require much less
maintenance.
 8. Earthship
Popularized in the 70’s, these structures are often made with used automobile
tires, filled with earth. Infill walls would be recycled materials like glass bottles or
aluminum cans and every effort is made to utilize local resources and eliminate
waste. Portions of the building may be bermed or buried. The term Earthship
really was intended to describe a sustainable approach to building, but over
time, has resulted in buildings that have very similar characteristics and
materials. With modern approaches to sustainable design, the sustainable
design philosophy has outgrown the original structures, however, some are still
being constructed today.

9. Cordwood
- Also called "cordwood masonry", "stackwall construction", "stovewood
construction" or "stackwood construction") is a term used for a natural
building method in which "cordwood" or short pieces of debarked tree
are laid up crosswise with masonry or cob mixtures to build a wall.

10. Shipping Container Homes

- Is a form of architecture using steel intermodal containers (shipping
containers) as structural element. It is also referred to as cargotecture,
a portmanteau of cargo with architecture, or "arkitainer".
The use of containers as a building material has grown in popularity over
the past several years due to their inherent strength, wide availability, and
relatively low expense. Homes have also been built with containers
because they are seen as more eco-friendly than traditional building
materials such as brick and cement.
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