Category: Trends

We have recently discussed the subject of waste and recycling. When discussing it, we also explained a particularly useful tactic to battle waste, the RRR acronym. RRR stands for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and is an acronym widely used by anti-waste campaigns. Let us have a look at the examples of materials used on construction sites with the potential to be reduced, reused and/or recycled in line with the above.

Examples of materials often found on construction sites are; glass, timber, metal, plasterboard, plastic, paper, rubber, concrete and more. All of those materials have the potential to either be reduced, reused and/or recycled in one way or another. When it comes to the reduction of use, steel has been mentioned particularly often by the experts. It is regarded as a durable and strong material with the potential to be used in smaller quantities while still meeting the construction standards. Modular building frames are made of steel therefore the construction of our buildings is considered light and strong. Steel can be joined by bolting or welding and can also be reused. As material steel is considered good to recycle. A fair proportion of steel used in the construction industry currently is being recycled. Recycling of steel can also be improved even more.  

There are many ways to reuse other construction industry materials as well. One of the most versatile is wood which can be reused in a number of ways. From simply reusing wood within the elements of a construction project, through using it as a decorative element in the house to using it as part of landscaping in various forms or, depending on the quality, as firewood. The better the wood quality the more options we have. Depending on the condition and previous use we might be forced to use it for something specific.  For instance, a lower quality wood will only be able to be used as firewood.

Another material good to be recycled is glass. When recycled, glass does not lose its quality and therefore is considered a high-quality recyclable material. We can’t say the same about paper as recycled paper loses on quality. Recycling paper is still highly useful as through recycling we are lowering amounts of new materials used, plus, the variety of papers is needed for different industries.

Bricks are something to reuse in construction industry too. If in good condition, bricks can often be reused again in a traditional way or alternatively can be crushed into brick chips and reused this way, as part of landscape material for instance. Plasterboard is a 100% recyclable material. It can be reprocessed and reused again. Crushed concrete can also be reused, as an aggregate for instance. Rubber can be recycled or it can also be reused as a DIY material. It is worth remembering that if we do not personally want to reuse some of the materials in a particular way, we can always find someone who will.

Out of a long list, plastic is probably one of the most problematic materials to be reused. There are many trying to find ideas and solutions to the plastic problem. One of the plastic biggest issues is the fact that there are so many different kinds of it, that not all can be recycled in the same way, therefore, trying to reduce its use is probably our best option. We can reuse what is possible, recycle as much as possible and keep looking for experts’ advice on alternative solutions.

Christmas is behind us now and New Year has already started. In 2020 we can respond in a positive way by implementing the tactic of three R’s and not only in the construction industry. New Year gives us the opportunity to reflect and to undertake steps towards a future of reduced waste.

Waste is a major subject in the centre to overcoming environmental issues. We buy, we use, we consume and we discard. This process creates a lot of waste. Global anti-waste campaigns, when discussing this subject, use abbreviation RRR, which stands for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. According to the campaigns, the three R’s need to be acted upon fast in order to save the environment. It is a call to governments, manufacturers and consumers.

At the same time, as a response, more voices are rising against recycling recently. Voices of people who are starting to doubt the benefits of the processes in use. As an example of their concerns, you will hear about dishonest businesses who, under the recycling label, are simply moving waste from one country to another. Furthermore, the concerns are raised regarding the subject of cities and countries who, because of unsuitable recycling processes in use, are not saving enough energy and wasting more than it is necessary. Similarly, also because of unsuitable equipment many recyclable materials cannot be recycled properly or at all.

Based on the above arguments, it becomes clear, why people are starting to doubt the benefits of recycling and are opposing it altogether as well as claiming recycling to be generating more problems than solving.

Recycling does in fact need urgent improvements, in many areas across the globe, it needs improvement particularly if we want to have a real positive impact. Does this give us the right to claim it’s better not to recycle at all though?

If we focus on all three R’s discussed at the top of this article, we may prove to have more influence on the subject of waste than we anticipate. Many reducible/reusable/recyclable materials can be found widely in stores, factories, households, construction sites and more. Anti-waste/recycling arguments, discussed above, often simplify the subject of waste focusing on Recycling alone – its faults but not improvements. Mostly pointing to negatives without giving solutions. Forgetting about the other two R’s is limiting our options, while many people can also Reduce and Reuse. There is enough information about the subject of recycling to realise that even with current, far from perfect processes in use, we are still better off with recycling than without it. As David Attenborough said in a documentary titled Blue Planet II, “Surely we have a responsibility to care for our blue planet”. A combination of reducing, reusing and recycling by both consumers and manufacturers could be the answer. Alternatives to using materials such as plastic as well as implementing rules and policies on who’s doing it and how it’s done need to be implemented by the governments. This should include responsibility for reducing/reusing/and recycling not being pushed only to consumers alone but also to manufacturers. This requires public demand. With the right amount of public demand, improvement to recycling processes will happen. Continuing with the belief in three R’s, we will be discussing some of the construction industry materials with the potential to be reduced, reused or recycled in our next article.

Architectural approaches and trends are constantly changing as architects keep striving for innovation. Clients’ needs, technological advancement, political and economic circumstances or even extreme weather conditions keep influencing architectural solutions worldwide. As a modular building supplier, we believe in portable or modular, prefabricated buildings, to be one of the most innovative architectural forms fulfilling contemporary needs and trends. Hence, we spend a lot of time and energy to perfect our products further.

Particularly interesting architectural projects often evolve from marrying unexpected solutions between various fields, such as for instance Botanical Architecture. As we are all well aware of, one of major problems of today is air pollution. We would like to discuss an architectural example performing particularly important role by addressing air pollution and sustainability. Architects around the world are looking for various solutions to these issues and Stefano Boeri Architetti studio does that with great effects. As part of Boeri project, Tirana Master Plan, the aim is to build sustainable tower building for residential purposes. The idea of city reforestation is in the heart of this project. Tirana Master Plan is a larger project which will includes raising residential tower building, in Tirana, Albania. This architectural plan uses similar solutions to another project by the same studio, called Vertical Forest, already built successfully in Milan. Tirana residential tower building will combine thousands of plants and shrubs as well as hundreds of trees. All the greenery will be planted around the tower building terrace areas and in its architectural form it will result in the modern hybrid look of a tower fused with plants, as if a giant architectural tree appeared in an urban environment. Enhancing this modern futuristic design, will be a substantial number of windows.

The project has been designed with detailed analysis of plants in use, taking into account irrigation, positioning and type of plants in order to create sustainable microclimate and the best possible conditions for the plants in use.

More architects and more architectural plans are looking into sustainable solutions as a response to current issues with our natural world. Is this how our future cities will look like, full of sustainable architecture and greenery? It is definitely a great start to finding solutions to some of major problems of today. We will be discussing more revolutionary architecture in our future articles.

Concerns regarding ecology and health are influencing progress within the construction industry. Currently, there are more engineering solutions in connection with green building resolutions than ever before. Structural design is adapted towards new technological alternatives. This means that new possibilities are opening up. One of those new possibilities is 3D printing technology. Technology which is worth our attention particularly because of its versatility. Recently developed and worked on continually 3D technology may eventually become our normality.

First, of the two examples, we would like to discuss in terms of 3D technology within building industry is a 3D printed residential house in Russia, created by Apis Cor. Nikita Chen-yun-tai, who is an engineer and Apis Cor founder, while working on 3D technology, has focused on creating 3D portable printer which can be transported to print a building on site. He believed it to be a better option in comparison to other efforts in 3D printing technology, which at the time were focusing on printing separate modules off-site and assembling them on site in order to create a whole structure of a building. 3D printed residential house in Russia was accomplished by printing the whole structure on site in just 24 hours and finishing off by adding roof and windows afterward. The type of material used for printing was concrete.

Within building industry, there are believers in 3D printing technology who think of it as a potential quicker, cheaper and environmentally friendly solution in comparison to traditional building methods. In our previous articles, when we discussed the history of prefabricated buildings, we talked about their use as a quick housing solution in particular. We discussed pre-fabs; post-war prefabricated houses which were erected in large numbers in the UK. Modular buildings were and still are the quicker and cheaper solution. As a modular building manufacturer we are excited to find out more about different quick resolutions within the building industry and for that reason, we find 3D printing an exciting technology to keep an eye on.

The second example of 3D printed building we will talk about today is Mediated Matter group project called Digital Construction Platform created and worked on by Steven Keating, Julian Leland, Levi Cai and group director Prof. Neri Oxman. Mediated Matter is a research group working across different sections of engineering technologies including synthetic biology, computer science, design and ecology in order to create different type and size of objects and structures with a potential to enhance relation of natural and man-made worlds.

Digital Construction Platform which they created is a mobile robotic arm fitted on a moving vehicle in order to be able to print a structure of a building in almost any size on site. Researchers decided to use insulation foam to print a test structure in the shape of a dome. The type of foam which have been used is similar to those used in traditional building methods in order to be filled with concrete afterward. Finished structure was 50 foot in diameter and 12 foot high. It was completed in less than 24 hours. Researchers of Mediated Matter hope to be able to use this type of 3D printing technology in the future in order to create astronauts accommodation during space missions or in Antarctica. Other options for use would be in areas following natural disasters such as after an earthquake or tsunami, as a quick shelter and accommodation. Materials used for printing could be different, for example naturally found within the environment. This could include mud and dirt. By doing so, an environmentally friendly structure would raise, naturally balanced with local surroundings, created by saving and recycling materials already present. This approach would be useful for both space missions and areas of natural disaster. Digital Construction Platform could be operated with the use of solar power, making it even greater in terms of positive ecologically friendly solutions.

We are looking forward towards new technologies in hope for more advanced, healthier and greener future building solutions and we are looking forward towards progress which 3D printing solutions are offering. When developed further, and it is an ongoing research, 3D printing technology may be in use for rehousing, office accommodation or immediate shelter following natural disasters. If you would like to find out more about 3D printing projects which we discussed within the article, including photos of the structures, please follow links in the sources section below. Featured photo within the article is of one of our modular building designs.

Sources:

apis core (2017), available at http://apis-cor.com/en/about/blog/features-and-perspectives-of-3d-printing (Accessed January 2018)

LiveScience (2017), available at https://www.livescience.com/58156-3d-printed-house-built-in-less-than-a-day.html (Accessed January 2018)

Mediated Matter (2018), available at http://matter.media.mit.edu/tools/details/digital-construction-platform-dcp (Accessed January 2018)

Science Daily (2017), available at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170426183028.htm (Accessed January 2018)