December 12, 2011
Voting for Durisol
Michael Pollan, the author of so many wonderful books about food and healthy eating, always says that when you are in the checkout line at the grocery store you vote every time you pay by the choices you make. For instance, if you buy 60% organic products you are sending the message to the grocery store chain, thus voting, that you like and will continue to buy organic products if they are stocked and always made available. The voting cycle continues every time you choose and pay for your groceries. As you buy more, they supply more, errr, that’s how it’s supposed to go.
Architects and homeowners always have choices when you decide to construct a new home. The choices we as architects make are a little different than those of homeowners, but we are both in the voter’s booth.
We have two exciting projects coming up soon where we have the opportunity to apply one of our specialties, green design, to new construction on two homes. This decision is driven by our clients, though encouragement to ‘think green’ and be environmentally responsible is offered by us on all projects and can be applied at any scale.
For wall construction, we will be using a product called Durisol. Durisol is a wood concrete material (cement bonded wood fiber). Durisol is used in an insulated concrete form that looks very similar to CMU blocks, except that it is the only insulated concrete form that doesn’t use foam or polystyrene. It’s a product that is healthy, environmentally friendly, and strong.
What makes this product so great is that 80% of the material is recycled material – softwood aggregates and by-products of the lumber industry. Plus, the forms are vermin, termite and insect proof and do not support fungus growth. The forms do not rot nor decay to boot. Though these benefits ought to be the norm, unfortunately they are not.
A link to Durisol’s site is here: Durisol
We are so pleased to start construction on two new homes using this product and will update with posts as we get started. Stay tuned…