Tomorrow's house: How building is revolutionized:
Building with stones or concrete devours resources, pollutes the environment and our health. But there are alternatives: houses made of wood, clay or even garbage.
Two Germans are building high-rise buildings made of wood, an entire district is being built in loam construction in Paris and an office building made of recycled materials in Rotterdam. Plan B accompanies visionaries and shows how sustainable building is possible.

Modern building
The construction sector is one of the most resource-intensive economic sectors worldwide. The sand for cement production is becoming scarce and increasingly expensive. Added to this is the high CO2 emissions for the transport and production of concrete. Most of the high-quality building materials end up in the hazardous waste landfill - around three billion tons a year in the EU alone. There is hardly any recycling or recycling.

Clay, a traditional building material
The Austrian building contractor Martin Rauch therefore wants to do without concrete entirely. For 35 years he has been experimenting with clay, a traditional building material that is still used to build houses in many poorer countries around the world. Not only did he build his own house together with Boltshauser Architekten AG from Zurich using the so-called rammed earth method, but he also built residential buildings for his siblings and commercial buildings for companies. Now he would like to help when a new clay residential area is emerging in Paris.

Recycling, key word for building in the future
Berlin architects Tom Kaden and Markus Lager build houses out of wood, a renewable raw material that also binds CO2. Despite construction law obstacles, they are currently building Germany's first ten-story high-rise building in Heilbronn, which would also have to be almost completely recycled.

In a former adventure swimming pool, the Dutch architect Floris Schiferli is thinking about how to reuse old steel beams, windows or wooden cladding. In his opinion, houses should not remain single-use products. He wants to prove his vision in the middle of Rotterdam: a new building is currently being built from the materials of a demolished house.

Two Germans are building high-rise buildings made of wood, an entire district is being built in loam construction in Paris and an office building made of recycled materials in Rotterdam. Plan B accompanies visionaries and shows how sustainable building is possible.

The construction sector is one of the most resource-intensive economic sectors worldwide. The sand for cement production is becoming scarce and increasingly expensive. Added to this is the high CO2 emissions for the transport and production of concrete. Most of the high-quality building materials end up in the hazardous waste landfill - around three billion tons a year in the EU alone. There is hardly any recycling or recycling.

The Austrian building contractor Martin Rauch therefore wants to do without concrete entirely. For 35 years he has been experimenting with clay, a traditional building material that is still used to build houses in many poorer countries around the world. He not only built his own house using the so-called rammed earth method, but also residential buildings for his siblings and commercial buildings for companies. Now he would like to help when a new clay residential area is emerging in Paris.

Berlin architects Tom Kaden and Markus Lager build houses out of wood, a renewable raw material that also binds CO2. Despite construction law obstacles, they are currently building Germany's first ten-story high-rise building in Heilbronn, which would also have to be almost completely recycled.

In a former adventure swimming pool, the Dutch architect Floris Schiferli is thinking about how to reuse old steel beams, windows or wooden cladding. In his opinion, houses should not remain single-use products. He wants to prove his vision in the middle of Rotterdam: a new building is currently being built from the materials of a demolished house.