Materials for Sustainable Sites
A Complete Guide to the Evaluation, Selection, and Use of Sustainable Construction Materials
Chapter One
Materials for Sustainable
Sites Defined
Since the mid-nineteenth century when Olmsted
excavated stone from the meadows of Central Park
to build the park's bridges, walls, and stairs, the
construction materials industry has undergone major
changes. There has been a shift away from localized use
of materials to centralized large-scale production and
global distribution; from minimally processed materials
to highly processed ones; and from simple materials to
engineered composites, mixed materials assemblies, and
liberal use of chemical additives to impart a wide array
of properties.
Materials of site construction have evolved in response
to many twentieth-century trends: the shift
from skilled craftsmen to cheap labor in construction,
increasingly nationalized standards that do not specifically
address regional materials or conditions, centralized
production of building materials and products,
cheap and abundant resources where " ... read full excerpt from Materials for Sustainable Sites: A Complete Guide to the Evaluation, Selection, and Use of Sustainable Construction Materials ebook
