Michael Burchert

Join David Nugent plus our other fantastic guests at this years conference!
📌 Edinburgh & ONLINE
📆 Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th October
🎟 seda.scot/seda-conference-2025

The Good Building Book The Good Building Book reimagines design and construction for optimal performance and value while minimising environmental impacts.Accessible yet thorough, this…

Available to pre-order, The Good Building Book has been a labour of love for me and Jon but it would be nice if it sells! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/good-buil...

There is an individual sweet spot of sustainable harvesting for most of these materials.

I don't like these insta viral things too much but If you are into plaster, you will enjoy these efficient japanese techniques.
www.instagram.com/reel/DMh1rkf...

I was looking into the flat roof of a 70ies bungalow today, sister-law bought it. So much empty space for insulation. 50 years of climate change, I bet it was barely warm inside with a gigantic energy demand.

It's clear that there is conntamination of water through pipes, some more, some less.

Many of these are now all over central Milan:

Saw 3 of the mini EV's in the city yesterday and it felt like Back to the Future Part II with the coaches of Part I and III still around. The folks inside looked self conscious as f. #sufficiency

Cork oak forests are also fantastically rich in biodiversity - in
Spring you can hear the trees humming with insects way before you reach them

What's not to love?

My favorite is the 18.3 family and friends.

At least it's still obvious.

www.hiss-reet.de Hier erfahren Sie mehr darüber, wie Reetdächer hergestellt, gepflegt, gewartet & repariert werden können. Das Familienunternehmen Hiss Reet steht für natürliche & qualitativ hochwertige Produkte seit ...

Thatch is not only for historical buildings. www.hiss-reet.de

Why is this interesting?
The usual conversation about hempcrete goes something like this: "Oh cool, that's hemp? As a wall, brick? It could be climate neutral? Cool! Oh, it just supports itself, well, okay."

(With a light wood frame it's actually totally fine.)

I wonder why building materials in our homes are left out of the discussion on microplastics. Would that be too uncomforting?

Cork is a miracle material. I can understand to an extent why rich and famous people don't live in luxurious straw, wood, mud houses, even though it's stupid not to do so when you have the opportunity (health, environmental benefits). But why don't they use something as noble and durable as cork?

Guy spraying seashells in a building.

Floor and foundation enthusiasts, crawl space enjoyers, here is probably something going on that you have not seen before. Seashells, hemp crete, cork etc.
www.ecoschelp.be/fr/applicati...

If only there was an agency, at the federal level even, tasked with protecting the environment from this stuff

Aerial photo of the destruction of Gaza City by Heidi Levine

This photo of Gaza City had to be illicitly taken during a Jordanian food drop because Israel has threatened to cancel drops of any photos are taken.

Building materials.

Building almost overgrown by a plant

🌱

Wird gut.

Schon gesehen, bin froh wenn überhaupt gedämmt wird.

Like: paint, laminate that is a photo of wood on wood dust with plastic glue with a plastic coat, vinyl floor, that is... well PVC, like the window frames, door finish, plaster additives, caulking... etc.

I wonder why building materials in our homes are left out of the discussion on microplastics. Would that be too uncomforting?

Lower Saxony Zweiständerhaus getting new thatch on the roof.

Regeneration

Why is this interesting?
The usual conversation about hempcrete goes something like this: "Oh cool, that's hemp? As a wall, brick? It could be climate neutral? Cool! Oh, it just supports itself, well, okay."

(With a light wood frame it's actually totally fine.)

Sizewell C costs could hit £100bn including financing, modelling shows Total for nuclear power station project set to be billions of pounds higher than official government estimates

Financial Times: “Sizewell C nuclear plant costs could hit £100bn including financing, modelling shows”
file under: most expensive form of electricity ever.

"At the Institute for CONSTRUCTION AND AGRICULTURE[!] Machinery Engineering at TH Köln, a pressing device is being developed that will enable the efficient production of specifically compacted bricks on a laboratory scale and allow them to be scientifically examined."
www.th-koeln.de/hochschule/e...

That's why we need to create safe arks for people + avoid upfront emissions. The quality monitored #passivehouse concept gives important hints: airtight and super insulated envelopes + filtered air.
To avoid unnecessary emissions this means retrofitting buildings preferably with plants + earth.

John Connor opposes Skynet.