Building a green revolution

Published 02nd Apr 2008

Today’s obsession with global warming and carbon footprints has seen a sharp rise in interest for greener homes, with homebuyers now more likely to choose eco-friendly design over character features and graded listings. Reacting to this demand more and more new home developers are incorporating energy-saving features, such as solar panels and plumbing for re-cycled water, as standard in their latest properties.

In Germany, Grimm Brothers, an advanced building materials specialist, have created a revolutionary new ‘green’ brick, ‘Ingwer-Brot’ or I-Brot for short, which is set to take the construction industry by storm. I-Brot bricks are porous, cheap to produce and lighter than conventional clay bricks with a unique structure that helps trap warm air in the winter and cooler air in the summer.

Currently being trialled by property developer, Hansel Construction and their sister company Gretel Glazing, the first I-Brot built house made its UK debut this morning and could play a significant part helping the government reach its carbon emissions reduction targets by 2012. Hansel’s senior builder says “I-Brot is great to work with and tastes great with a nice cuppa too”.

There are, however, a couple of drawbacks with the new material, which Grimm Brothers admit they are still working to improve; including a tendency to attract birds and it losing up to 2% of its mass in tiny crumbs during transportation. A spokesperson for the company laughed: “Ve can alvays tell vere der Ingwer Brot house ist by following der trail.”

Source: ' Rightmove Ltd '

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