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July 13, 2007, 04:59 PM ET
OLD DO NOT USE Concrete: Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?
A number of architecture students have won sustainable-design awards from the Portland Cement Association, which sponsored a competition to find "innovative, environmentally friendly uses for concrete." But hold on. As a green material, concrete earns mixed reviews. Sure, it's durable and it doesn't "off gas" toxic compounds. However, it can be a product with high “embodied energy” -- that is, the energy used to produce it.
Treehugger, a site devoted to environmentalism, says that when the Cement Association of Canada sponsored a recent green-building festival, it was “like a cigarette company sponsoring a medical convention.” An article in the most recent issue of Natural Home suggests replacing Portland cement with fly ash, a waste material from coal-burning power plants. But we digress.
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, a mass-market magazine for green building, highlights the pros and cons of concrete. It says "the most significant problem with concrete is the Portland cement," because it requires "an immense amount of energy to produce, the byproduct of which is greenhouse gases." will feature all of the winners on its Web site.
Winning entries in the Portland Cement Association contest, picked by professors of architecture and members of the building industry, came from institutions all over the world. Two of the top winners are:
Henry Louis Miller, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, won first place in the component category for plans to mix Portland cement with waste plastics or toxic soil to make bricks for building projects. Giséle Fraser, Daphnee Van Lierde, and Mikaëlle Rolland-Lamothe, of Laval University, in Quebec City, won first place in the structure category for a design for the new Science Center of Quebec, which made an innovative use of concrete walls for passive heating and cooling. --Scott Carlson
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