INGENIEUR
Self-Healing Concrete and Sweaty Roofs
in Future Buildings
Source: World Economic Forum
Concrete that can fix itself, roofing that can sweat
and surfaces inspired by carnivorous plants are
some of the radical new technologies that hold
the key to transforming the building industry,
according to a new report.The study, from the
World Economic Forum, looks at how the building
industry can adapt to some of the key challenges
of the next few decades; from meeting the
demands of rapid urbanisation to tackling climate
change. Shaping the Future of Construction says
that an industry which has been traditionally
slow to adopt to technology must now move to
embrace it.
Self-healing concrete is one example of the
kind of technology which could add years to a
building’s life. The material is able to release a
healing agent when cracks appear. When the
agent comes into contact with a catalyst inside
the concrete it turns into a solid, strong polymer.
Another innovation which could significantly
reduce running costs is a rain-absorbing matting
which, acting in the same way as perspiration,
cools the building as the rain evaporates.
Technology can now mimic a tropical
carnivorous plant, the nepenthes, to make
surfaces so slippery that they become self-
cleaning. The plant uses a slippery surface so that
its prey slides inside to be devoured. Buildings
can borrow the same technique for different
ends, using a lubricating film makes their surface
immiscible to liquid – incapable to mixing with it.
What really needs to change, the report says,
is not so much the pace of new technology as the
construction industry’s attitude towards it. Many
practices in the construction industry have not
substantially changed in 50 years. Traditional,
proven methods and materials are used and
builders are often focused on the short-term
construction costs rather than the lifetime costs of
a project. To reduce waste and increase efficiency
needs to change.
As an industry that strongly affects the
economy, the environment and society as a
whole and is the world’s largest consumer of raw
materials, the construction industry has a key role
to play, according to the report's authors.
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VOL
VOL 79
55 JULY-SEPTEMBER
JUNE 2013 2019
What's the Future of the Construction
Industry?
Source: World Economic Forum
Unlike other industries, the engineering and
construction sector has been slow to adopt new
technologies, and has certainly never undergone
a major transformation. As a result, productivity
has stagnated over the last 40 years, or in some
cases, even declined.
This unimpressive record looks set to change
very soon, and very dramatically. In fact, profound
changes are already taking place – though not
yet on a sufficiently wide scale – in many aspects
of the construction industry. The writer William
Gibson’s famous phrase fits the industry perfectly:
The future is here today – it is just not evenly
distributed.
The key is digitalisation. More and more
construction projects are incorporating systems
of digital sensors, intelligent machines, mobile
devices, and new software applications –
increasingly integrated with a central platform of
Building Information Modelling (BIM).
The challenge now is to achieve widespread
adoption and proper traction. Wherever new
technologies have properly permeated this
fragmented industry, the outlook is an almost 20%
reduction in total life-cycle costs of a project, as
well as substantial improvements in completion
time, quality, and safety.
Construction reconstructed in all its phases
Technological advances are now revolutionizing
almost all points in the life-cycle of a built asset,
from conceptualization to demolition.
Digitalisation is transforming all three major
life-cycle phases of construction projects.
Consider the following scenario – no longer
futuristic, but “here today”, though its building
blocks are still distributed patchily over disparate
projects.
During the design & engineering phase,
BIM identifies potential design clashes and
constructability issues, thereby averting costly
corrective rework; and it improves the tendering
process by making the information more
transparent and accessible.
An interesting example is that of Crossrail
– one of the world’s largest and most complex