ERNE and Oxara can report initial successes in their proof of concept for CO2-reduced construction. Work on the MANAL pavilion on the campus of Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Horw is progressing, the Aargau-based construction company announced in a post on LinkedIn. ERNE is responsible for the masonry in the construction of the pavilion. Oxabrick technology products from Oxara in Dietikon are being used. The two companies entered into a partnership in May to develop sustainable building materials based on clay.
In the MANAL project, the earth mortar used by ERNE is being used outside the laboratory for the first time. “The material behaves completely differently to conventional mortar when building walls,” ERNE bricklayer Mattia is quoted as saying in the article. “We first had to acquire an adapted processing technique for this.” Mattia cites the permanent water solubility and long workability of the sustainable building material, which is based on Oxara technology, as advantages. Cement-free clay bricks are used for the arches and vaults of the pavilion.