What are Commonly Used Building Construction Materials?

They are concrete blocks, not cement blocks; cement is only one of the ingredients of concrete.

Much of the brick that you see is just a veneer on a concrete block or wood frame wall.

Why hasn't steel been mentioned? Or aluminum?

And PFS bricks?

FPS.

Of course. foot/pound/second.

What a whacky way to classify bricks.

Yeah, but millimeter bricks are SO different....

(They throw your mortar calcs off if you try to adapt them to Imperial spacings.)

(I'm sure the Freemasons, Rosicrucians and Illuminati could provide some dissenting opinions.)

The glass you refer to on skyscrapers is just a veneer, a covering, usually over a steel frame. And it is usually coated to reduce solar gain. Even so, most skyscrapers require air conditioning even in the winter because of the heat load of the occupants and equipment and low exterior area to volume ratio.

And, there are several cities with skycrapers in the United States that are not in a snow belt - Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles come to mind.

Nice new skyscrapers with lots of glass windows offering great views are expensive, hence you want them in nice places with nice views to allow nice high rents. You cannot charge as much when the view is an inner city slum as you can of the ocean.

A bit of a simplification but it should give you some idea.

Thank you all.

I have seen marked difference in construction materials used in last 2 decades- a shift from bricks to concrete blocks. Steel and Aluminum are used for reinforcing and windows etc.

Mostly the buildings used to be just 2 storied and later were 4 storied tall at the most. But now 20 to 30 storied tall buildings built mostly concrete blocks are very common./ Glass veneered building for office buildings are common- which may mean no maintenance finishing / painting later on. But imagine heat accumulation inside will be so much that air-conditioning cannot be avoided. That adds to heat displacement from inside to outside- compounding the effects explained under Urban Heat Islands.

I have been particularly concerned as huge building structures dwarfs the tree - which help attract rain bearing clouds.

So environmental warming issues cannot be ignored anymore. I am looking for solution to this and put a halt to further degradation - if not Bangalore population will go down by 50% in just next 2 to 3 years- due to heat accumulation.

This would be something a big city going in reverse in population due to heat impact!

Maybe not a bad outcome but I think this is not what is going to happen.

I also do not quite buy the idea that trees attract rain, but if so nobody will keep us from planting some trees on our roof tops.

Green roofs actually work against urban heating.

If you need an idea what building material is good in your climate I would go and find some historical buildings which most likely fulfill the climate requirements. Unfortunately the issue is that these building materials will not be suitable for Skyscrapers.

There are no two opinions about trees attracting rain bearing clouds. Don't expect them to attract like magnet- 50 to 100 kms away- but at least clouds do come down wards due to large tree cover- and presence of skyscrapers with heat sinking and radiating after sunset- definitely do exactly opposite of it. This is in UHI.

" Green roofs actually work against urban heating"- Are you referring to say- fiberglass green roofs? It is not colour, but live trees which carry water vapor from ground up to leaves and keep a cooler top. Imagine umbrellas made by man- are truly not cool. There certainly is a difference in standing under the shade of a building and shade of a tree.

"Unfortunately the issue is that these building materials will not be suitable for Skyscrapers."

You certainly have made a valid point that certain cooler building materials can definitely be found- but are not suitable for skyscrapers. BUT we never wan skyscrapers !!!! It is the political class !!!!

UHI? What is this?

Green roofs is mostly grass but more so the attempt to use the area to grow vegetables and fruits.

Besides being useful there it is also cooling the area that otherwise would heat up.

Google green roofs and you get the idea!

Consider Steel Sandwich Insulated Panels and/or Building Integrated PV Panels