Yucatan scientists invent a better building block
As part of the NoBI Sureste program promoted by the Scientific Research Center of Yucatán (CICY), researcher Emmanuel Alejandro Flores Johnson and engineering student Ramon Antonio Campos Valencia are creating a lighter and more heat-efficient cinder block.
In addition to being half the weight of conventional blocks, they also offer thermal insulation.
And they’re perfectly suitable for building walls and ceilings. Scientists say it will save construction costs because its lightness will make it quicker and easier to work with. Savings continue when the finished home has lower cooling costs.
“This material will allow thermal comfort to be better, so it would reduce the use of cooling systems in homes, which for the final resident would also be a saving, as well as for the environment,” Flores Johnson said.
Valencia, a civil engineering student at the Autonomous University of Yucatan, explained that they carried out interviews with about 100 people from the construction sector to learn their needs.