To build healthy buildings is one of the pillars of ecological building:
Through choosing suitable materials, healthy service systems, and designing a healthy and comfortable indoor climate, including solutions for avoiding problems with moisture, radon and noise as well as how to facilitate cleaning and maintenance”.
write Varis Bokalder & Maria Block. The choice of materials has been steered by material assesments prescribed as ”recommended” or ”accepted” alternatives in the book The Whole Building Handbook(Earthscan, 2010).
Some building materials we have chosen are clay, slate, lark shingles, straw, wood & ceramic. For insulation materials we have used hemp, flax, sheep wool, timber wool, glass foam and cellulose fibre. Heating pipes in the meeting centre have been placed within the clay plaster. Through different technical installations like insulation with ecological damp proof membranes, wind proof textiles, water proofing membranes, flax seed oil & egg tempered paints, sound insulating glass, sound barrier berms, radon extraction, etc. we have found sustainable solutions. Ecotopia på Österlen also offers eco-cabins without electricity for people with electrical sensitivity. Interiors of buildings are easy to clean and maintain, and the environmental goals, derived from the evaluation criteria for environmental classification, are steering the planning and building processes.
