We discourage using lots of cement because of its adverse environmental impact. However, there are times when it makes sense. For instance, concrete is very useful for making strong bond beams and water resistance structures in rainy climates. Foamed or lightweight concrete such as aircrete has become very popular lately because its lighter weight reduces labor and improves the insulation value. Bricks and blocks are the defacto international building unit, so I did a search for “aircrete blocks” and found the Forterra company in the UK, who is a major supplier of these green building blocks. Their products are profiled below.
green bricks
No-Bake Martian Bricks
“Should we ever get human settlers on Mars, they’ll likely have to construct their buildings at least partially out of Martian soil. That said, it would be nice if they didn’t have to bring along a bunch of kilns, in order to fire that soil into bricks. Well, according to a NASA-funded study conducted at … Read more