New Student Org

Juniors in the Department of Construction management have created a new student organization. See their website for event details and Join online. They hope to create a University wide community of students who are interested in Green Development and Sustainable Practices

Biodiesel Organicly grown

Fungi Discovered in Patagonia Rainforest Could Be Used to Make Biodiesel Read More

New UW Student Organization

Juniors in the College of Built Environments have started a new club and seek members from across the University of Washington campus. If you are interested in green development and sustainable practices, this club will be a place to learn and share with students from a variety of disciplines. Sign up on their website (upper lefthand corner) and join in the events.

Concrete reinforcement: Carbon Fiber grid

Brought to this blog by CM313 student Kyle Hughes - a new way of reinforcing concrete that is marketed to be more green: Carboncast

Sketchup supports Green Design

http://gigaom.com/2008/10/01/googles-sketchup-goes-to-work-for-green-buildings/

Prefab

Prefab is making a come back in a big way. Check out this Wired article that talks about the MoMA event in New York.

Materia: a website all about materials

There are lots of websites on Materials. Materia is one of the best I've found so far.

On the main page of the website there are featured materials and news. This website finds new an unusual products. It's a great resource for finding products you've never heard about.

Also, there is an online database of materials, called the “Material Explorer” which can be accessed for free after registering. There are several methods for finding a product, including selection based on material, sensorial information, technical information, and the country of origin.

Selecting based on material includes options to search by material types such as wood, stone, glass, metals, plastics, ceramics, and concretes.

The sensorial selections include more unusual ways of classifying materials. Other than taste, all of the five senses are covered. The categories include glossiness, translucence, structure, texture, hardness, temperature, acoustics, and odor.

The technical ratings are relevant for selecting based on performance, allowing you to filter the search by fire resistance, UV resistance, weather resistance, scratch resistance, weight, chemical resistance, and renewability.

These unique filters (particularly the sensorial and technical) allow the designer to search for a material without having to have a specific product in mind. This could provide surprising and interesting results that may inspire the designer to use a unique material that could inform the rest of their design.

Fresh Water from in air

Check out this interesting product from Element Four. Their website suggests that they take the water out of the air - perfect for humid places!

Greener Block for concrete walls

Integrity block is billed as a greener alternative to traditional concrete masonry units (CMU). Made out of a proprietary soil composite, it's brownish tint gives it a clay brick look, but the specs show a CMU strength.

Green Curtain walls

Can Highly Glazed Building Façades Be Green? This is an interesting discussion of glass curtain walls and designing for energy efficiency. Do note that this is the opinion of the author who is a consultant from Building Science Consulting.

Construction Fair Event Oct 1 & 2

Seattle's seventh annual Buildex Seattle Tradeshow & Conference is supported or sponsored by numerous property and facility management and building operations associations in Washington. Exhibiting suppliers and manufacturers are competing to catch the attention of attending property managers, facility managers, building owners, building operations personnel, developers, designers, contractors and more.

Construction for Change

Recent graduates of the Department of Construction Management have started a non-for-profit to improve infrastructure around the world.

Construction for Change

Our Mission ~ CfC is a not-for-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington USA. Our mission is to partner with organizations worldwide to provide needed infrastructure for economic, medical, and educational growth in developing communities; giving them the tools to eradicate poverty and improve quality of life for those in need.

They are currently working on a school campus in Zambia.

Construct Seattle Trade Expo

Looking for inspiration and product ideas. Check out the Construct Seattle trade expo.

New Freeway Design for energy generation

Here's a clever idea, use wind generated by cars and trucks along the freeway to generate electricity - another reason not to have gridlock! Check out this new system by Mark Oberholzer.

Organic Building Materials

Sent in by 2007 student John Todd, this Times article discusses the possibilities of using Mushrooms as building insulation.

Exterior Cladding Performance

There is a complex relationship between temperature and moisture in exterior cladding systems. Our friends at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories Building Technology Center ORNL/IBP have created a tool to help us assess the performance of any system. Check out the WUFI: their Educational PC-Program for calculating the coupled heat and moisture transfer in building components.

Prefabrication

This summer one of our own faculty, KEN TADASHI OSHIMA had the privilege to comment on and participate in an exhibit at the MoMA in New York. This exhibit discusses and documents fabrication and prefabrication for housing around the world. Five full scale houses were built on an open lot in mid-town Manhattan to illustrate prefabrication and innovative construction techniques. Check out the videos on the site. What challenges does prefabrication create for the design of our homes? What challenges do builders face? Does the drive towards automation make standardization inevitable, or do these next generation examples allow for mass customization?

Bosch Aluminum Frame System

TAALMAN KOCH ARCHITECTURE have developed a prefabrication system for housing. Here's one of the homes recently developed with this system. Check out the iT House construction blog.

Why this blog?

This blog is to inspire students who are studying Construction Materials and Methods. We've moved our Cool Stuff list over from our course website to make it easier for students to post Cool Stuff throughout the fall quarter (during class) and to keep on posting throughout the year.

Lots of cool innovative ideas and examples out there from wind farms running off of highway medians (catching the wind from passing cars and truck) to new materials made out of mushrooms. This is a log of building materials for earth and space. Looking for inspiration? This list will be updated regularly. Feel free to suggest cool sites for this list!