University of Bath joins biobased buildings material project

In the United Kingdom, the University of Bath has joined a European consortium targeting natural and biobased building materials. Dubbed Inbuilt, the group is collaborating to develop 10 biobased materials, including fungus-based insulation, rammed earth blocks, hybrid straw-clay boards, and prefab wall panels made from waste wood.

University of Bath joins 15 other institutions and will focus on testing performance of mycelium insulation developed by Mykor.

“The overall aim of this aspect of the work is to produce an entirely natural insulation material from largely waste material, with good mechanical properties and insulation performance equal to or better than common conventional materials such as rock wool,” Steve Allen, associate director of Bath’s Institute for Sustainability, told The RIBA Journal.  “The critical thing is to consider as much of the life cycle as possible, and as many different types of environmental impact as possible, to ensure we get the overall footprint as low as possible.”

INBUILT is funded by the EU’s research and innovation program Horizon Europe within the Built4People partnership.