Sustainable materials | Center for Vocational Building Technology

Hi Geoffrey,

it's been great finding about the work you and your team have done and I am interested especially in the sustainability and environmental side of things.

I was wandering if you know of or have done any work regarding a life cycle analysis of the sorts of materials you have been producing such as RHA and CEB? I am interested in their potential to be reused and recycled and form part of a 'closed loop' cycle especially compared to the more conventional materials they can replace such as cement and fired bricks.

Kind regards,

Dan

Life cycle of CEBs

Dear Dan,

Although, with maintenance, earth construction can last over 200 years, some earth buildings are torn down. I can think of 3:

An flush toilet outhouse at our Center which had a clogged septic system. We replaced it with a dry composting toilet made from interlocking compressed earth blocks.
A house in a neighboring village: it had blocks deteriorating because it did not have an anticapillary layer.
A guard house at the old provincial capital in Nong Khai. It had not received maintenance.

At our Center we probably used the blocks for fill. This is similar to other construction materials. Fired bricks can be reused. Efforts to recycle concrete (including blocks) are largely unsuccessful.

Does this answer your question?

General