Construction

Five-year study shows recycled concrete works as well as normal concrete, maybe a bit better Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) conducted side-by-side comparisons of recycled and conventional concrete in a building foundation and a municipal sidewalk, finding that the recycled concrete had comparable strength and durability after five years in service. The study conducted by UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering also found that the recycled concrete had a higher rate of compressive strength after 28 days of curing, while maintaining a greater or equal strength during the five-year period.Crushed concrete replaced natural aggregate in the study’s recycled...

Russian engineers give Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome a fractal makeover The geodesic dome, a way of making spherical structures out of triangular elements, has been given a 21-century redesign by two Russian engineers armed with modern computers. The dome was developed in Germany in the 1920s, and taken up by legendary US designer Buckminster Fuller in the 1940s as a solution for America’s housing shortage. The idea was to use factories that previously made aircraft to prefabricate the domes. Fuller’s business venture failed, but many domes have since been built, often as statement pieces with ecological import, such as the...

“Oscars of construction”: Nominations now open for Construction Manager of the Year Awards The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has begun its search for the UK’s finest construction manager of 2021, as nominations open for the annual Construction Manager of the Year Awards (CMYA). Now in their 43rd year, the awards celebrate the talent of those who manage construction projects rather than the project itself.Rigorous assessment by a panel of expert judges, including previous CMYA medalists, assess the performance of construction professionals in a range of categories, from infrastructure and residential to healthcare and commercial projects.Winners are picked in each...

ASCE Structural Engineering Institute Announces the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment Program     New program provides structural engineers with the necessary tools and resources to contribute and track projects toward the vision of net-zero embodied carbon structures by 2050   RESTON, Va. – The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) has announced the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment Program (SE 2050). The SEI Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment Program (SE 2050) provides structural engineers with the necessary tools and resources to contribute and track projects toward the vision of net-zero embodied carbon structures by 2050.   The SE2050 Commitment...

A third of our waste comes from buildings. This one's designed for reuse and cuts emissions by 88% Roberto Minunno, Greg Morrison, Richard L. Gruner, and Timothy Michael O'Grady   Designing buildings so they can easily be taken apart and the materials reused provides a feasible and commercial pathway for minimising waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Our research shows one such Curtin University building, the Legacy Living Lab in Fremantle, reduces construction waste and cuts emissions to almost a tenth of what a conventional building process would produce. The modular, circular economy building produces benefits in all six environmental indicators...