From field training to the culture of natural materials
Roberto Sacchi: Matteo, for twenty years you have been working for Naturalia-BAU, a historic company, closely linked to the values of ecology in architecture and which, thanks to your skills, disseminates knowledge of green building insulating materials and their applications. When I met you, you had only recently integrated into the company, but you were already accompanying visitors to the construction site of the new headquarters, relating the works under construction, already showing a high level of technical preparation. I therefore deduce that green building was already something you were interested in even before your commitment to Naturalia-BAU, or am I wrong?
Matteo Pontara: To tell the truth, I don’t like using the term green building, especially in recent times of violent greenwashing, for a rather simple reason: it is always and “only” construction. The fact of building spaces and environments for people must necessarily lead us to pay attention to what we choose, to the materials we use and to respect those who live in them, those who work in them and the environment in which they are inserted, that is, the bioslife, should be implied and automatic.
It is also true that as a child I was lucky enough to do my first summer jobs in a village dairy, which was one of the first organic food shops in the province of Verona. If we want a parallel story to Naturalia-BAU, born in the back of the Naturalia shop… Perhaps due to this first imprinting, as a new graduate in architecture, I looked for and found a job in a construction shop which in the advert was looking for a “Green Building Technician”. There I was lucky enough to be able to train technically and commercially with various companies, including Naturalia-BAU.
The experience was very interesting because it allowed me to grow in skills but with a strong need to balance the supplies and implement the systems. I had to manage the technical promotion but also the management and reporting of the construction site, especially the slightly particular ones with natural products, which my colleagues willingly “left” to me. I remember the first coats with wood fiber insulation in 2002 and 2003, in new buildings and complex renovations, with many visitors from all over northern Italy…
Furthermore, I was able to truly experience, in the warehouse and on the construction site, the difference between natural insulating products and petrochemical insulators or mineral wool, or the differences between lime and clay plasters compared to terrible two-component adhesives…
In those years, thanks also to the people I met and was able to hang out with, in particular Daniele Poli, the relationship with Naturalia-BAU grew, where I started in 2007, and where we met. In summary, my training path is very different than many who pursue academic careers, master’s degrees and scientific studies. I was a “shop boy”, immediately learning to deal with the economic and operational part of construction, trying to demonstrate why it is better to choose natural and renewable materials.
Natural insulators: between skills, performance and new challenges
Roberto Sacchi: In your role as a trainer you provide technical support to designers, companies and individuals. What are the most frequent doubts or errors you encounter when talking about natural insulating materials and how do you try to overcome them through technical disclosure?
Matteo Pontara: The typical doubts and errors have changed their face in recent years: previously they were “simple incompetence”, that is, some aspects were not known and, once known, it was all in all easy to integrate them and therefore overcome them. I am thinking for example of summer performance, the acoustic qualities of the systems, the humidity management capabilities. Now, however, there is an excess of information and proposals, with such confusion that it makes choice and competence complex.
We could use the Superbonus 110 period as a watershed, which for construction workers was a tsunami that also disrupted skills. Professionals and businesses have been inundated with a mountain of bureaucratic and administrative requests, in addition to the many already existing. This distanced the technicians from the reality of the interventions and the expertise of the construction site. For a couple of years the documentation was more important than the product and the intervention itself. This complexity has led to even more favoring of certain shortcuts, such as “magic” insulating products, which were later debunked.
For a couple of years now we have been regaining contact with the project and with the real choice of materials. The issue that now creates the most doubts for technicians regarding the use of natural insulators of renewable origin is fire resistance. This is why we are carrying out and making known a series of tests and experiences of solutions with natural insulators, in particular for coated facades.
Roberto Sacchi: Which application characteristics of plant-based insulating materials do you think are fundamental for a green building project to achieve high performance in terms of comfort, energy efficiency and durability?
Matteo Pontara: The required application features depend on the application. The great thing is that we now have materials available for all applications: heavy and rigid for roof insulation, plasterable for external and internal insulation systems, flexible or blowable.
Furthermore, insulating products of renewable origin are now available in consolidated and validated systems (ETA of ETICS for example) which allow the technician and the company to move with confidence. In a strict technical sense, the plus point of renewable insulation is its summer performance, followed by breathability and controlled hygroscopicity which enhance its performance in hot climates.
The future of construction starts from knowledge and experience
Roberto Sacchi: Looking at the future of construction, what technological, regulatory or cultural innovations do you think will be decisive in the coming years? And what message would you like to leave to young architects and technicians, especially those who do not yet know the advantages of building according to green building standards?
Matteo Pontara: My point of view does not allow me to give you an answer to the first part of the question. The technological and regulatory innovations of recent years are, to say the least, “unpredictable”, understanding their impact on construction is even more complex. On the one hand there is talk of reducing CO2 emissions in construction and transport, on the other states are investing in armaments and in the return to coal or nuclear power… I can only hope for a “calm” on a global level!
For those approaching construction, I recommend having a lot of curiosity, not being satisfied with easy answers, but having the desire to touch and see the architecture and the materials that compose it. Only by touching it with your own hands, by going beyond the virtual, can you appreciate the architectural and design choices and the materials that compose them.
In Italy and throughout Europe we have the fortune, which everyone envies us, of being able to study live constructions that are over thousands of years old, made with very simple materials and still there to show us their beauty and functionality. These materials were truly green building materials, we just have to learn from the past in choosing raw materials, designing them and using them with modern tools. What is important is that life, the biosis put back at the center of the project, the rest will be a natural consequence.
