I was at a trade show at the week-end and saw a couple of new building
methods and was wondering if anybody on the list have used them and if
so what were their experiences.

The first was an engineered flooring joist it was made from 75mm
square timber frame with steel diagonal ties and occasional 75mm
square reenforcing. It came lengths up to 5M. It seemed like a good
idea as it allowed easy running of plumbing and electricals through
the joists without drilling as they were hollow and it is supposed to
have better flex and load carrying characteristics

Joist Side on, all horizontal and verticals 75mm timber, diagonals
steel ties.

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The second item was a building block made from extruded clay it was a
sandwich of a 125mm inner block, 100mm polystyrene insulation and 75mm
outer block. They are used alot in Finland apparently. They are fixed
using an adhesive rather than traditional sand/cement mortar. They
were very light but seemed flimsy to me.