[alancalverd]

If you are going to fill the cavity with stuff that doesn't collapse, etc., then the stuff currently used for cavity insulation seems ideal. Why invent anything more expensive or less easy to install?

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

If you are going to fill the cavity with stuff that doesn't collapse, etc., then the stuff currently used for cavity insulation seems ideal. Why invent anything more expensive or less easy to install?

It is far cheaper, as i said. It doesnt collapse under long term deformation, it doesnt hold water, my super air pocket insulation is cheaper lighter and can be inflated on site to mean transport is now far easier. It is full of air that does not undergo convection. But i digress.

So why is this type not used, because there is no way the construction industry has forgotten about bubble wrap? So to the point.

[evan_au]

I saw a different type of brick construction used in Albania that I hadn't seen used in Australia - instead of a solid brick, they used lightweight hollow bricks.
- Presumably the air pockets provide a degree of insulation
- They aren't really for load-bearing applications
- I saw them used in reinforced concrete buildings (the reinforced concrete provides the load bearing)
- The bricks just keep the rain out and provide insulation
- Somewhat like the little cubes of air mentioned by Petrochemicals

Anyway, these images come from a company in India...
https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/6x8x16inch-lightweight-hollow-clay-brick-25579501688.html


Hollow_clay_bricks.png (449.63 kB . 388x488 - viewed 716 times)

[alancalverd]

These are fairly common throughout Europe, as are hollow concrete blocks. They have about half the weight, compressive strength and conductivity of solid brick and can be laid more quickly, but you still need some kind of air cavity to minimise conduction.  Current practice in renovating solid-wall domestic buildings is to fix a slab of polyurethane foam to the brick and finish it with plasterboard, so I guess you could do the same with a single skin hollow-brick wall  and get the rigidity of an insulated cavity wall with less skill. 

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

Something more like this, you get a machine to inflate and seal it on site, a 400m roll costs 100 pounds, at 5 layers per metre cavity height one of these
should just about do a small house. Yet this is not used, one must think due to the thermal qualities
Air-Packing-Cushions-TA-A91NW6.jpg (305.34 kB . 2400x1800 - viewed 428 times)

[Bored chemist]

one must think due to the thermal qualities

No.
You don't even need to think.
You have already been told.

Bubble wrap works pretty  well (ask any rough sleeper) but tends to collapse under its own weight and is a fire or toxic smoke hazard, so it isn't used in buildings.