You may remember reading in the news about the devastating earthquake which affected 500,000 Chilean homes and businesses in 2010. While the first efforts went towards helping the survivors and containing the damage caused by the 8.8 magnitude quake, soon attention turned to rebuilding on a large scale.
Obviously one big concern when rebuilding after a disaster is how to prevent that disaster from every happening again. Of course we can’t prevent earthquakes, but we can limit their destruction by upgrading building codes and building materials.
In Chile, many homes and buildings have been rebuilt using an innovative, green building material called BetaBlocks. Imported from Texas, the BetaBlock technology creates building brick out of a highly compressed mix of sand, local soil, and clay. These bricks are then cemented together using more of their own mix, rather than using traditional mortar. The result is an anti-seismic, home-insulating, humidity-lowering, inexpensive wall.
You can read more about rebuilding Chile with BetaBlocks here