"One of the earliest large-scale examples of composite materials can be found in the Great Wall of China, where stone, clay bricks, and organic fibers such as reeds and willow branches were blended to create a resilient and lasting structure. These early techniques reveal a timeless intuition: distinct materials, when combined thoughtfully, produce properties unattainable by any single element."
"Widely used composites, such as petroleum-based polymers reinforced with glass or carbon fibers, first entered architecture through aviation and automotive industries focused on efficiency and precision. Their combination of lightness, strength, and resistance allowed architects to pursue forms and spans that conventional materials could not easily offer. However, their production is energy-intensive, reliant on non-renewable resources, and recycling remains a challenge, while many end up in landfills, contributing to a high carbon footprint. While technically impressive, standard composites present environmental trade-offs that the construction sector can no longer ignore."
Historic builders combined stone, clay bricks, and organic fibers such as reeds and willow branches to create resilient, long-lasting composite structures like the Great Wall of China. Modern composites, derived from petroleum-based polymers reinforced with glass or carbon fibers, offered lightness, strength, and freedom of form, largely adopted from aviation and automotive industries. Those materials are energy-intensive to produce, rely on non-renewable resources, and pose recycling and landfill challenges that raise carbon footprints. Sustainable or circular composites integrate bio-based fibers, recycled plastics, and hybrid formulations to retain performance while enabling reuse, biodegradability, or recyclability and aligning with circular-economy principles.
Read at ArchDaily
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