In Portugal, the house building industry has mostly adopted reinforced concrete framed structures and clay brick-wall. The use of other structural materials, such as steel, timber, and stone-wall is still rather limited in this sector. Moreover, the use of earth-based construction techniques and solutions still remains limited to individual cases. Within this context, this paper describes an investigation on sustainable structural solutions for a typical single family house using natural materials. Three different structural solutions were compared, namely a reinforced concrete frame solution, a solution based on CEB (compressed raw earth blocks) masonry and timber structures for floors and roof, and a solution based on reusable materials, such as timber originated from the demolition of buildings. These alternative structural solutions were compared in terms of building costs, energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The study confirmed that the sustainable solutions had most advantages, particularly with regards to the environment.
Building materials and techniques; CEB; Incorporated energy; CO2 emissions; Sustainability evaluation in construction