SA Affordable Housing January - February 2020 // ISSUE: 80 | Page 12

EVENTS
SAISC 2019 Steel Awards showcases local
steel construction innovation mettle
L
ight steel frame building offers quality, energy-
efficient and affordable construction techniques which
are growing in popularity. The growth trajectory and
incremental increase in the popularity of light steel frame
(LSF) building in South Africa has been nothing short of
remarkable. In 2004 this construction technique was
little-known in South Africa. Today, this relatively new
building method is now both widely accepted and
frequently used locally.
“The growth in the popularity of LSF construction locally is
due to its inherent innovation, and due to the fact that it
reduces building costs, in a number of ways,” writes John
Barnard, director of the Southern African Light Steel Frame
CADCON Winner of ASTPM Tubular Category for Fourways Mall.
Overall winner – NJV Consulting, Durban Christian Centre.
Protea Glen Secondary School JHB, MiTek Industries LSFB
Category.
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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2020
SAAffordHousing
Building Association (SASFA), a division of the South African
Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC), in the May 2019 issue
of SA Affordable Housing.
To underscore that innovation, later that year SAISC held
its 2019 annual Steel Awards event. This year the SAISC
received a record-breaking number of 94 entries for the
awards as opposed to 70 in 2018 and 59 in 2017. Paolo
Trinchero, CEO of the SAISC, says the aim of the awards is to
highlight the use of steel in the built environment. This aim
was brilliantly realised by the entry of the overall Steel
Awards 2019 winner and winner of the SAFAL Steel
Innovation category, the Durban Christian Centre. This
building was commissioned to replace an earlier church, built
in the shape of a large dome, which had burnt down. Here,
the innovation lay in the geometry of the large roof arches,
inclined in different planes which provide support for the
roof; as well as the very tight site access.
"The growth in the popularity of
LSF construction locally is due to
its inherent innovation, and due
to the fact that it reduces building
costs, in a number of ways."
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SA Affordable Housing
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