A house in Karuizawa, in the mountains near Nagano, Japan, has built the world’s first CO2 sequestering concrete wall.
It is located next to the road on a property that is 110 meters long. Karuizawa, 70 minutes from Tokyo, is one of Japan’s oldest and most popular mountain resorts. The surrounding forest, which offers cycling and hiking trails, is known for their mild summers.
Designed by Japanese design studio Nendo, the house features walls made of CO2-SUICOM, an environmentally friendly carbon sequestering concrete.
It is made by replacing parts of cement with industrial products and adding carbon-absorbing materials that result in less CO2 emissions during production.
CO2-SUICOM Kajima, Chugoku Electric Power Co., Ltd., Denka and Landes Co.
According to a study published last year, cement and concrete production in the world accounts for about 8 percent of carbon emissions. In 2020, energy-based CO2 emissions from the cement industry accounted for 1.2 percent of Japan’s total emissions.
The solution for Nendo was to design a concrete block wall that would serve as a filter screen.
The design concept is to build a house with concrete block walls that will act as a filter screen.
Line of sight is what a person can see from a point. So adjusted the angle of the block to allow for a controlled look. Depending on the placement of the blocks, they control what is visible and hidden. All this has been achieved by making sure that it looks attractive.
About 2,050 blocks are lined up to form five high walls, each three meters high. As explained, the living space is meant to “fill the void”. They adjusted the angle of the block to three degrees to ensure that each room feels right and has enough privacy. “As a result, the design shifts to blocks arranged in a gradient pattern,” they said.
The strength of CO2-SUICOM is the same as the strength of conventional concrete.
To do this, the resulting concrete is placed in the curing chamber. CO2 is then fed into the curing chamber to absorb into the concrete. CO2 from various sources can be used directly. A simple concrete block emits about 300 kg of CO2 per 1 m3 of material. As explained, CO2-SUICOM can achieve carbon neutrality. The absorbed CO2 remains in the concrete and cannot be released.
Nendo was founded by Oki Sato in 2002 in Tokyo. In 2012, he designed a forest house in Komoro, Japan’s mountainous Nagano Prefecture. This unique tree house provides a home for many birds and men. On one side there are 78 bird nesting places. On the other side, there is a human entrance from inside the tree house where you can also see the bird’s nest.
