As a technological indication, the materials are classified according to the type of feedstock and the method of production. On this sign they are divided into natural and artificial. Natural materials and articles are obtained directly from the subsurface (rocks) or vegetation. These materials are given a certain shape and rational dimensions, without altering their internal structure and properties (do not undergo heat, chemical or other treatment). We are talking about materials stone, wood, earth (clay), straw, cane, hemp, etc.
Biological aspect:
Why build and we furnish homes with natural materials and how they help create an optimum healthy environment and microclimate for people?
We spend 90 of our time indoors. And the harmful influences of the environment – in the home, the office, the school – are just as important to our health as the toxic ingredients in the cosmetics, food we eat, the clothes we dress. Our own homes are the threat of the increasing diseases of the new millennium – asthma, allergies, migraines, cancer, infertility, hyperactivity in children and many others.
This should not be an occasion and another reason for stress – fear of our home, but a responsibility to be informed and to seek and achieve real alternatives for a better quality of life. Still many people are dismissive and distrust of the research and warnings about the harmful influences of the modern urban environment and claim that hardly anyone would have allowed to sell dangerous things in stores. Let us realize that in the world there are many forbidden to produce, use and sell substances and materials that have been in circulation for many years. With the alarm data about the boom of the “modern” diseases especially among children (allergies, dermatitis, asthma, autism, cancer), we need to start somewhere the reduction of the accumulating from everywhere unnatural for human things – foods with preservatives and colorants, Synthetic clothes, PVC furniture, packaging, toys, polluted by cars and factories air, electromagnetic noise. In combination, these influences are detrimental to our health and to the health of our children – the future people of our planet. ‘ Health is not everything, but if we do not have health, everything is nothing. ‘ Schopenhauer
The home is our “third skin” and must be built and maintained as close to nature as possible, otherwise it will become a dangerous environment for its inhabitants. Focus of attention are construction and cleaning materials, air quality at home (IAQ) and electromagnetic fields (EMFs).
Sources of information and graphic material:
The IBN Institut fuer Baubiologie (Building Biology) & Oekologie, Biohomeshop, Association for construction with natural materials, ModeCell, Econest, Energy Assessment of a Straw Bale Building: Carol Atkinson, Inhabitat