Sustainable Building: Bringing the Past into the Future

Learning from Ancient and Indigenous Techniques of Sustainable Building to Create a Greener Chicago!

To counter the effects of global warming it is more important than ever to explore greener ways of building using local, sustainable materials and low carbon footprint processes. Rammed Earth Building, a technique that compresses local soil to form structures, has been used for thousands of years. New techniques using mycelium mushrooms are also being developed to create strong, light weight, building blocks and insulation panels. Click on the images below to discover how ancient techniques are being adapted to create greener solutions for urban design and transformed into new contemporary art materials.