ECOLOGICAL HOUSES
WHAT ARE ECOLOGICAL HOUSES?
The ecological houses are buildings that respect the environment, built with natural materials, with minimal energy consumption and that makes the most of the natural resources of the sun and the earth to achieve the comfort of its inhabitants.
Lately we see many offers of ecological prefabricated houses, or made of recycled materials: wheels, shipping containers … in many cases extensive use is made of the word ecological, by fashion, when really what is presented are efficient houses, where not all materials are natural or they are houses made of recycled materials.
WHAT DO WE OFFER FROM CREHABITAT?
Crehabitat offers you the complete service for the construction of your ecological house at the same price as a conventional housing of medium quality.
Design of your ecological home by the hand of our architects.
We know that the construction of your house is a very exciting process and we put all our experience, means and know-how to maintain that illusion until the delivery of keys.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ECOLOGICAL HOUSES
Bioclimatic houses
A bioclimatic house is one that is designed taking advantage of the natural resources of the environment so that, during its execution, use and demolition, it has the minimum energy consumption, thus reducing the environmental impact.
Design intelligently so that the sun, the winds, the vegetation or even the rain are in favor of the interior comfort of the home.
Sustainable houses
These are houses that, following the precepts of sustainable architecture, leave the smallest possible footprint in the environment. In them the criterion of “comfort today prevails, leaving the best possible planet for the next generations”.
It studies and minimizes the following environmental impact factors:
- Visual impact
- Impact on the environment that is located, flora and fauna
- Impact on construction, taking into account the energy and waste produced
- Impact produced both in the extraction or processing of raw materials
- Carbon footprint during the use of the house
- Quantity of waste generated in the house, especially garbage and fecal waste
Natural houses
These are those built with raw materials very little elaborated, used in its original state and without the addition of chemicals. Some of these materials are: wood, stone, clay, lime, plaster, straw, linen, cork, wool…
It also seeks the maximum integration in the natural environment that are located, partially buried, with roofs or plant walls…
ECOLOGICAL MATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTION
Among the most ecological materials that we can use are:
- Mud
- Bales of straw
- Wood Cork
- Lime
- Stone
BENEFITS OF ECOLOGICAL HOUSES
- Air quality: ecological houses do not emit toxic substances, clay mortars clean the air of volatile organic substances and lime mortar adsorbs CO2 from the environment, in addition to eliminating mites.
- They regulate the humidity, the wood and above all the clay are hygroscopic materials and regulates the interior humidity, leaving it in comfortable parameters.
- Minimum energy consumption: due to the great isolation and bioclimatic design.
- Great interior comfort. The materials described above give us the feeling of comfort and warmth. We are attracted to the natural. lo natural.
TYPES OF ECOLOGICAL HOUSES ACCORDING TO EMPLOYED MATERIALS
WOOD ECOLOGICAL HOUSES
Wood is one of the oldest materials in housing construction. Its characteristics of mouldable material, workable, warm, insulating, renewable and normally close, make it very useful in construction. Although wooden houses can be made of whole logs, it is not usual, in most common the use of already sawn wood in the form of beams and boards.
There is also a multitude of wood derivatives, with more or less proportion of tails such as laminated beams, agglomerates, and plywood … .In bioconstruction we minimize the use of these agglomerates and if the use of laminated beams is very common.
We can distinguish:
- Whole log houses: rare today
- Light-weave houses: where a light wooden structure is made, wooden backs and soffits, a steam sheet and the intermediate space is filled with insulation, which can be tree bark, cellulose, wool, linen, wood fibre...
The advantages of a wooden house are:
- Construction speed
- Renewable resource, especially if it comes from sustainable farms
- Feeling of warmth and comfort of the wood
The disadvantages:
- Price a little higher than a traditional house
- Sensation that is more sensitive to fire than a traditional home. The fire in the houses is usually produced in textiles: curtains, sheets, and mattresses … the wood when burned creates a layer that prevents burning inside. Metallic structures that lose their resistance to fire and fall apart are much more sensitive
BRICK ECOLOGICAL HOUSES
Here we include both cooked and not … Obviously the uncooked bricks are much more ecological, because they save a lot of energy, in exchange they tend to have lime as a binder.
We focus on the uncooked, because their properties of bio-habitability are much better. These might be:
- Bricks of adobe: the oldest, formed by clay and vegetable fibre that provides endurance to traction, like straw. They are sun-dried and do not carry any binder. They must be protected with mortars to prevent their degradation due to the climate.
- BTC, Compressed earth block, is the evolution of adobe brick; it improves the resistance of this by introducing a compaction of the earth and even a percentage of binder.
- Blocks of mud, arise to facilitate the construction of the wall, which is totally in situ and requires a lot of manpower. The concept is very similar to the CEB, with a superior format…
ECOLOGICAL STRAW HOUSES
Perhaps they are the most popular of the ecological houses. They have an unbeatable quality / price ratio and straw is a cheap and abundant material. In France there is a long tradition of construction of these houses. Although it is not strictly necessary, they usually have a wooden structure that facilitates the processing of their collegiate visa.
The straw forms the walls and acts as an insulator. Then both sides are revoked with mud or lime mortars, to prevent the attack of external agents and the degradation of it. It is a very breathable house with a great feeling of warmth.
