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New building products offer sustainability and design for your project

Building supplies

Discover revolutionary building products aimed at protecting the environment. Reducing energy consumption is everyone’s business, buildings included!

An ecological building has many commitments with regard to building products, water management, and energy consumption reduction. The benefits are well worth it: good air quality, appropriate soundproofing of indoor environments, and reduced ​CO​2 emissions, among others. As a professional with years of experience in the industry, you probably have noticed that terms such as “sustainability”, “energetic efficiency” and “energy savings” have become present in projects and bid specifications. Always ready to adopt new regulations as well as innovative and increasingly more efficient constructive solutions.

Green building products

Building supplies

According to Cundall, buildings account for 33% of the UK total energy consumption.

The materials prescribed and chosen in the design and construction of a building, regardless of its use (residential, business offices, leisure, health services, etc.), have a direct impact on its energy consumption. From the thickness of a window glass to the centimetres of the insulating material installed in a roof, each characteristic of a material and its installation will affect the sustainability of a building’s construction, its use, and future maintenance.

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New building materials: the boom of sustainable materials

This desire to achieve greater sustainability by architects, technicians, manufacturers and commercial brands has encouraged universities and companies over the recent years to design new building materials under the new building needs. Some examples:

  • Glass blocks that generate renewable energy. ​Fashionable today due to its contribution to architectural design over the recent years, it can now generate renewable energy thanks to small solar cells integrated into the glass blocks.

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  • Lighting system with solar tubes. ​If you need a solution for spaces that require extra light points, this is a superb option. With this natural lighting system, light is captured through a dome in the ceiling and channelled down thanks to an internal reflective system.
  • Transparent wood. A group of researchers from the University of Maryland has come up with this new material that could revolutionise modern architectural design. In addition, if the transparent wood is placed in front of a solar panel, the amount of light absorbed will be greater, raising its efficiency by 30%. A material that should be very interesting for the energy efficiency of your project should it become available on the market in the future. Liangbing Hu and his colleagues from the University of Maryland published the details of the process they used to make it translucent in the Advanced Materials journal. Hu is convinced that transparent wood will one day be used as a building material to make windows, tables, and any piece of furniture. The author states that «it can have applications that potentially replace glass and some optical materials.»
  • Bricks made of pine and olive ash material. ​Directly manufactured in the laboratory, the classic brick has been reinvented thanks to research developed by the University of Jaén. An example of sustainability that also takes advantage of the local resources.
  • Ultra-compact surfaces. Cosentino has recently developed Dekton, a new construction material designed for large-shape surfaces whose application in facade lining can add lightness and sustainability to your designs.

In the case of Dekton​, its contribution to the architectural industry is of immense value due to its multiple applications. This ultra-compact surface presented by Cosentino can be applied to ventilated facades, interior lining, flooring, and stairs, among many other options. It provides lightness, adaptability, and resistance, making the building more sustainable in its construction, with greater design possibilities.

The five chosen examples of new building materials for construction are just a small sample of how innovation has come to the market of architecture and design, allowing your projects to be more exclusive, sustainable and innovative.

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