Sustainability has driven innovation in the construction industry in recent years. The sector is in the early stages of technological transformation, with various eco-friendly building practices changing how developers, architects, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors and rank-and-file workers see the business for the better.
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What Does Innovation Mean in Construction?
Innovative construction processes, methods, and products deviate from tradition to develop past long-established practices and leave the ills that come with them behind.
What Are the Key Influences on Construction Innovation?
Innovation in construction didn’t happen in a vacuum. The movement’s impetus is the relationships between construction stakeholders, the industry and external parties.
Property owners, construction manufacturers, procurement systems, building standards, public policies, and the nature and quality of organizational resources are also vital factors.
Top 7 Eco-Friendly Building Innovations
The complete list of innovative solutions the sector has seen in recent memory is long, but these seven are the most noteworthy.
1. Regenerative Architecture
This architectural philosophy looks at structures as integral components of the natural world, treating them as extensions of the overall ecosystem. They consume and replenish resources, which allows them to play active roles in maintaining ecological balance like most living organisms have done for eons.
Structures boasting regenerative architecture have living systems. Green roofs and vertical gardens are carbon sinks, trapping carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Indoor and outdoor vegetation can satisfy biophilia — the innate tendency of humans to connect with nature and other creatures.
Planting crops instead of ornamental plants and grass can produce food for building occupants and wildlife. Greenery also mitigates the urban heat island effect through shade and evapotranspiration, naturally reducing cooling loads to reconcile comfort and energy efficiency.
2. Passive Building Designs
Passive architecture is about using nature as an HVAC system to cut energy consumption dramatically. It recognizes structures can regulate indoor temperatures and keep humidity in check without over-relying on mechanical means when designed correctly.
Certified passive buildings usually have these things in common:
- Continuous insulation: There’s little or no thermal bridging to minimize or inhibit heat transfer.
- Airtight construction: This refers to the absence of gaps between building components, preventing drafts from infiltrating indoor spaces and conditioned air from escaping.
- High-performance glazing: Windows and exterior doors can have glass optimized for insulation, air-leakage prevention, and unwanted solar heat-gain reduction.
- Proper solar orientation: Using materials with high thermal mass, you can leverage sunlight to capture free energy for heating.
- Balanced ventilation: It promotes optimal air circulation to keep moisture levels under control and remove contaminants.
The result is lower space conditioning loads and less power use.
3. Circular Processes
Circularity epitomizes the closed-loop material cycle principle, where building elements undergo a never-ending process of recovery and recycling at the end of their life cycle to serve infinite purposes. It aims to normalize using reclaimed materials and deconstruction-friendly building designs.
Circular construction also promotes the sharing economy, as manufacturing the necessary tools and vehicles is a resource-hungry process. Paying less money to use existing equipment helps maximize utility, cut costs, combat climate change, minimize air pollution, conserve virgin resources and make a dent in the dominant cradle-to-grave business model.
4. Modular Construction
Modular construction pertains to standardized components manufactured in an off-site factory — a form of prefabrication. Mindful material usage is modular construction’s primary environmental benefit, helping reform the industry’s image as a notorious waste generator.
Traditional construction produces more than 50 million tons of waste and debris yearly in the US alone, most of which end up in landfills. Modular construction processes aim to reduce this figure significantly by efficiently, precisely and accurately manufacturing building components. Modules are pre-measured and fitted so workers can assemble them immediately after reaching the job site. Post-installation, there’s little to no leftover material.
This innovation is part of the circularity movement, which is why module production also heavily incorporates recycled content. Paper facing can contain 100% recycled material, aluminum frames are 70% scrap metal and gypsum boards comprise 95% landfill waste. Some modular system manufacturers exclusively reuse existing building components to give construction and demolition debris a new lease on life.
5. Bio-Based Materials
Because these construction materials come from living matter, they’re sustainable alternatives to conventional fossil fuel-derived ones. Timber, earth, clay, bamboo, cork and hemp are common bio-based solutions, while hempcrete, miscanthus and kenaf are emerging.
Creating environmentally conscious raw materials from biomass addresses many issues plaguing the planet — finite resource depletion, climate change and waste. In theory, producing them can go on forever with minimal environmental impact since they’re naturally replenishable through photosynthesis daily.
Bio-based construction supplies help reduce the demand for virgin materials, curb the exploitation of resource-rich sites and leave the remaining untouched ones alone. Actively killing the market for fossil fuel derivatives is a form of climate action.
Regarding waste, agricultural and biofuel production wastes are viable bio-based feedstocks. The biotechnological methods of producing these sustainable materials are highly efficient, making them more recyclable than traditional construction goods.
6. 3D Printing
Also known as additive manufacturing, construction 3D printing can build multi-story properties layer by layer on-site or off-site nonstop using concrete, plastic, or composites. It can fabricate eco-friendly building components, too.
Construction 3D printers and bio-based materials are a match made in heaven. They can shorten project timelines and minimize the ecological impact of construction work.
Detractors say current 3D-printed structures are minimally functional and aesthetically underwhelming. Although these criticisms are rooted in reality, exceptions to the rule — like Dubai’s Office of the Future — prove additive manufacturing is the future of construction. Once engineers learn how to build up with construction 3D printers, extrusion may produce the skyscrapers of tomorrow.
7. Solar Roofing
Renewable energy systems have gone from add-ons to full-blown construction components. Solar roof tiles and shingles are aesthetically a step above photovoltaic panels. Although they come in limited styles, some designs are indistinguishable from the original.
You can find these innovative roofing solutions in action in Pompeii. They hide in plain sight on the House of the Vettii and the House of Cerere, whose historical roofs consisted of Roman terracotta tiles. Solar roof tiles now power these ancient ruins, aiding the tourist magnet’s sustainability efforts. This Italian case study is an advertisement for restoration professionals to integrate renewable systems into culturally relevant buildings and archeological sites.
Merging sustainability and history is more feasible than ever. Seeing how practically anything can be solar-powered these days — including post lights and window blinds — it should be all uphill from here. Solar technologies continue to mature design- and performance-wise.
8. Electrified Heavy Machinery
The advent of retrofit electrification kits has made it possible to convert various typical construction machines into electric vehicles. Luckily, the industry struck gold because electrifying hydraulic and diesel-powered equipment can be simple — mainstream earthmover designs make the transition seamless and relatively low-cost.
Retrofit electrification allows construction companies to decouple from diesel, noticeably curb greenhouse gas emissions and keep air on-site fresh.
Construction Innovation Is Construction Evolution
The sector can no longer maintain its environmentally unsound ways, so it must evolve. Certain eco-friendly building innovations may only make sense for specific projects.
Still, construction firms must consider established and emerging green solutions to make headway with their sustainability journeys and be trendsetters that inspire others.