Building with sugar and corn

• Author(s): Pinto, J. ; Paiva, A. ; Costa, A. ; Tavares, P. ; Fernandes, L. ; Murta, A. ; Varum, H.
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/6997
• Origin: RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro
• Subject(s): Earth-based materials; performance; sugars; corn; biomimetic
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

Two alternative and highly sustainable building techniques are presented and described. The techniques are sugar reinforcement of earth based material and corncob based thermal isolation material. Some experimental results highlight the advantages and disadvantages of these two proposed techniques whose study is still beginning. The water resistance of earth based materials may be increased by adding a certain amount of sugar. On the other hand, corn cob material may have a similar thermal behavior as the common thermal insulation materials currently used in the building industry.