JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #120 - April 2018 - 27

The future of building: the growing use of composites in construction and architecture

existing, cutting-edge and futuristic
building applications were included.
The product scope that was covered,
applying a broad definition of composites
(not just reinforced plastics), included
reinforcement fibres such as glass, carbon, aramid, basalt, and natural fibres
including cellulose and steel fibres. On
the matrix side, not just polymer matrices
were considered but also gypsum, bitumen and cement/concrete.
The book targets all participants in the
building industry supply chain but was
written with two types of readers in
mind: firstly, those readers with no prior
knowledge of composites and who will
hopefully find that the topics are covered
in a way that allows comprehension of
the subject, and secondly, those readers
who have knowledge about composites
and who will hopefully find the technical
detail of the examples interesting.

Utrecht City Council offices

High-profile architectural projects
The way in which some of the world's
leading architects have used composites in high-profile projects has led to
a significant number of striking and
spectacular buildings being unveiled.
The largest sub-segment here is public
buildings, which are often the subject of
design competitions. Projects such as the
extension and refurbishment of the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art or the
new roof of the Apple conference centre
in California have been reported in the
press. The book gives details of twenty
leading architectural firms who have been
involved in composite-based projects.
Many of the projects used composites to
create the façade of a building but composite roofs, domes and pavilions were
also installed, with the gilded domes of
the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris
being one recent example.
The two most commonly cited reasons
for the use of composites in buildings
are, first, the freedom of design, form and
aesthetics that composites give to the
architect, which is often coupled to and
enabled by the second key reason: the
light weight of composites compared to
traditional materials.

Other important reasons cited for
the use of composites are: corrosion
resistance/good weathering, low level of
maintenance required, translucency, the
advantage of off-site manufacture and the
ability, with the right resin formulation,
to pass stringent fire tests.
In all cases, off-site pre-fabrication is a
major advantage for multiple reasons including quality facilitated by a controlled
manufacturing environment, material
usage efficiency, absence of weather issues and ability to trial assembly and fix
problems before the actual installation.
The combination of light weight and
on-site multi-panel assembly makes the
transportation of composite parts around
the world possible.
A number of specialised moulders with
a full service beyond just moulding have
appeared, with on-site installation expertise also being important.
The light weight of composite elements
means less stress on the foundations of
the building and on any façade support
structure. Composites are also gradually
becoming incorporated in building codes
and passing critical fire tests that broaden
their application possibilities.
Composite systems for either whole
buildings or parts of a building
Over the years and in many countries, a
wide range of buildings have been developed using composites.
These were mainly residential but there
were some commercial ones (in particular

Luxury
portable buildings

N°120 April 2018

/ jec composites magazine

Feature Building and Construction

Four key segments of composite
use in construction
Scanning the applications of composites
in construction shows that there are four
key segments where composites are used:
- Architectural projects;
- Composite systems for either whole
buildings or parts of a building;
- Composite elements;
- Composite products used for the reinforcement or repair of buildings.
The book contains sixty-eight examples
covering these four segments with details

of the application and the reasons for using composites. In this article, for reasons
of space, only a brief overview of these
four segments is presented.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #120 - April 2018
