Building Materials

What does Exup build with?

Exup focuses on using healthy, high-performance materials in every building. These include insulated concrete forms, rammed earth, and adobe, alongside insulative materials such as strawbale. Every building material is carefully considered and used to get maximum benefit in every Exup design.

 

The mission defines the material.

Building material is a defining element of any structure; it can show immediately what the building was designed for, whether it's a small, tough house in a high-threat environment built of bullet-proof ICF, or a soft cornered, high-efficiency strawbale house designed to protect occupants against bitter cold in the high Pakistani mountains.

 

How does Exup use building materials?

Because building materials consist of the majority of the identity of a building, Exup pays special attention at the outset of the design process to the desired intent; is it a bomb-proof barracks in Iraq that can double as a command post? Is it a clinic in a post-disaster area that needs to be set up quickly, and protect against further disasters? Or will it be be used for office space in a rebuilt area, space that needs to emphasize creativity and productivity?

 

What influences the choice of building materials?

Passive heating and cooling goals influence material type, as well as weather conditions such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Other factors influencing building material decisions are ease of use and speed of building.

 

What is the project?

Some projects place more emphasis on a high level of security, in others economic costs are vital. Exup blends old and new technologies to create hybrid designs that can excel in both security and economic efficiency.

 

In high-threat areas where time is mission-criticial, using unskilled laborers to build the vertical envelope in a day creates defensible positions that can be immediately used. In post-disaster areas where thievery can be a problem, building quickly eliminates the potential for theft-loss of loose materials.

 

Whatever the case, Exup buildings can fit into any scenario, helping to maximize building potential anywhere on the planet.

 

For hundreds of helpful facts and figures regarding green building, energy, and the economy, check out our GREEN FACTS page.