Steel Frame Homes Design

Steel frame homes design – modern home construction methods

Steel frame homes are known to be the most cost effective structures. Contemporary home architecture and construction offer many options – timber frames, concrete structures and despite that such framing is more popular in industrial construction, it has found its place in residential buildings. Steel frame homes are exceptionally resilient, durable and offer a lot of benefits.

It is true that when you hear “a steel frame house” the first impression that comes to mind is not very flattering and people imagine a boxy cage-looking structure that does not look like home at all and this is one of the main reasons why people choose alternative options. Once you realize that a metal frame home offers original aesthetic possibilities and can have an amazing appearance you may change your opinion of steel framed homes. A metal frame house does not have to look like a steel cube. You can have a brick facade or wood, exterior cladding or vinyl siding to create the appearance that you want. The framing has some advantages but it has some drawbacks, as well — most notably its poor insulation ability and we shall have a look at the pros and cons of metal frame homes.

Advantages and benefits

What are the pros of steel frame homes? Why people choose them over traditional wood framing for residential structures? What type of steel is used for metal frame homes? Those are the first questions that come to mind when you need to compare this exceptional type of houses and traditional ones.

Steel has been in use for building construction since the 19^thcentury but mainly in commercial buildings. The two types of steel are “hot-rolled” and “cold-formed”. Both types are very strong, but the hot-rolled type is thick and heavy. In addition, it is very expensive and rarely used for residential buildings. Cold-formed steel can be formed into much thinner profiles and can be cut and folded. The frames offer the advantage of being custom made and sized during the production process and there is no need to cut and fix their size during construction. The framing can be ordered pre-framed which means that all door and window openings would be constructed at a factory and delivered to the site of construction ready to erect. This means less labor cost and shorter construction period.

Durability of steel frames is hard to beat and this is probably the most important advantage. They allow bigger space between the vertical studs and larger open space. Steel frames do not warp or expand which is a major advantage when compared with wood framing. In such home you will not have problems with rotting, fungus or termites and ants. A metal frame house is more resistant to earthquakes and high winds as well.

When building such house, the inside frames are grounded to the earth which gives additional stability to the construction and the framing acts as a lightning rod. Further to that, it is not combustible.

Lightweight is another advantage over wood framing. Steel is lighter than wood, concrete and brick. Itis resistant to water and will not expand or contract. Such framing has a longer lifespan than any other material when treated properly with the right coatings and paint.

Steel is completely recyclable and is considered as an eco-friendly material. This is the right choice for a long life building, short construction period and environmentally friendly residential architecture.

Disadvantages of steel frame homes

Energy efficiency is the biggest issue of steel frame homes. They are not energy-efficient because the material has very poor insulating properties due to the fast conduction of heat. To overcome this problem, extra insulation or high efficiency insulation should be installed.

Despite that steel frame houses are constructed quickly, the process requires knowledge, tools and special equipment. Not every contractor has the necessary tools, so you have to do some research if you have decided to opt for a metal frame home.

The framing is usually galvanized to protect it from corrosion as it is susceptible to rust. If the surface coating is cut, scratched or penetrated moisture can cause rust.

Another disadvantage of steel frame homes is the overall strength of the material. It does maintain structural integrity but metal framing will not support heavy wall mounted furniture pieces or cabinetry. This leads to a necessity of additional support which adds to the cost of construction.

https://www.minimalisti.com/steel-frame-homes-design-modern-home.html

Top ten construction innovations

New materials and energy, design approaches, as well as advances in digital technology and big data, are creating a wave of innovation within the construction industry. Here are ten of the most exciting developments

1. SELF-HEALING CONCRETE

Cement is one of the most widely used materials in construction, but also one of the largest contributors to harmful carbon emissions, said to be responsible for around 7 per cent of annual global emissions. Cracking is a major problem in construction, usually caused by exposure to water and chemicals. Researchers at Bath University are looking to develop a self-healing concrete, using a mix containing bacteria within microcapsules, which will germinate when water enters a crack in the concrete to produce limestone, plugging the crack before water and oxygen has a chance to corrode the steel reinforcement.

2. THERMAL BRIDGING

Efficient insulation material is becoming increasingly important throughout the construction industry. Heat transmission through walls tends to be passed directly through the building envelope, be it masonry, block or stud frame, to the internal fascia such as drywall. This process is known as “thermal bridging”. Aerogel, a technology developed by Nasa for cryogenic insulation, is considered one of the most effective thermal insulation materials and US spin-off Thermablok has adapted it using a proprietary aerogel in a fibreglass matrix.  This can be used to insulate studs, which can reportedly increase overall wall R-value (an industry measure of thermal resistance) by more than 40 per cent.

3. PHOTOVOLTAIC GLAZING

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glazing can help buildings generate their own electricity, by turning the whole building envelope into a solar panel. Companies such as Polysolar provide transparent photovoltaic glass as a structural building material, forming windows, façades and roofs. Polysolar’s technology is efficient at producing energy even on north-facing, vertical walls and its high performance at raised temperatures means it can be double glazed or insulated directly. As well as saving on energy bills and earning feed-in tariff revenues, its cost is only marginal over traditional glass, since construction and framework costs remain, while cladding and shading system costs are replaced.

4. KINETIC FOOTFALL

Kinetic energy is another technology under development. Pavegen provides a technology that enables flooring to harness the energy of footsteps. It can be used indoors or outdoors in high traffic areas, and generates electricity from pedestrian footfall using an electromagnetic induction process and flywheel energy storage. The technology is best suited to transport hubs where a large flow of people will pass over it. The largest deployment the company has done so far is in a football pitch in Rio de Janeiro to help power the floodlights around the pitch. It also currently has a temporary installation outside London’s Canary Wharf station powering street lights.

5. KINETIC ROADS

Italian startup Underground Power is exploring the potential of kinetic energy in roadways. It has developed a technology called Lybra, a tyre-like rubber paving that converts the kinetic energy produced by moving vehicles into electrical energy. Developed in co-operation with the Polytechnic University of Milan, Lybra operates on the principle that a braking car dissipates kinetic energy. The cutting-edge technology is able to collect, convert this energy into electricity and pass it on to the electricity grid. In addition to improving road safety, the device upgrades and promotes sustainability of road traffic.

6. PREDICTIVE SOFTWARE

The structural integrity of any building is only as good as its individual parts. The way those parts fit together, along with the choice of materials and its specific site, all contribute to how the building will perform under normal, or extreme, conditions. Civil engineers need to integrate a vast number of pieces into building designs, while complying with increasingly demanding safety and government regulations. An example of this was work on the structural integrity of the arch rotation brackets at Wembley Stadium, undertaken by Bennett Associates, using ANSYS software, which simulated the stresses on the brackets that hold and move the distinctive arches above the stadium.

7. 3D MODELLING

Planning innovation has been driven by the growth of smart cities. CyberCity3D (CC3D) is a geospatial-modelling innovator specialising in the production of smart 3D building models. It creates smart digital 3D buildings to help the architectural, engineering and construction sector visualise and communicate design and data with CC3D proprietary software. The models integrate with 3D geographic information system platforms, such as Autodesk and ESRI, and can stream 3D urban building data to Cesium’s open architecture virtual 3D globe. It provides data for urban, energy, sustainability and design planning, and works in conjunction with many smart city SaaS platforms such as Cityzenith.

8. MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

Modular construction is increasingly popular where a building is constructed off-site using the same materials and designed to the same standards as conventional on-site construction. It limits environmental disruption, delivering components as and when needed, and turning construction into a logistics exercise. It also has strong sustainability benefits, from fewer vehicle movements to less waste. With up to 70 per cent of a building produced as components, it allows a move towards “just in time” manufacturing and delivery. In use in the United States and UK, Chinese developer Broad Sustainable Building recently completed a 57-storey skyscraper in 19 working days using this method.

9. CLOUD COLLABORATION

basestone is a system allowing the remote sharing of data on a construction site in real time. It is predominantly a review tool for engineers and architects which digitises the drawing review process on construction projects, and allows for better collaboration. The cloud-based collaboration tool is focused on the installation of everything from steel beams to light fittings. The system is used to add “snags”, issues that happen during construction, on to pdfs, then users can mark or add notes through basestone. Trials have revealed possible cost-savings of around 60 per cent compared with traditional paper-based review methods.

10. ASSET MAPPING

Asset mapping focuses on operational equipment, including heating and air conditioning, lighting and security systems, collecting data from serial numbers, firmware, engineering notes of when it was installed and by whom, and combines the data in one place. The system can show engineers in real time on a map where the equipment needs to be installed and, once the assets are connected to the real-time system using the internet of things, these can be monitored via the web, app, and other remote devices and systems. It helps customers build databases of asset performance, which can assist in proactive building maintenance, and also reduce building procurement and insurance costs.

https://www.raconteur.net/business/top-ten-construction-innovations

Multi-Residential Construction with Prefabricated Floors by TECBEAM

There is a big question for panelised systems, with prefabricated elements to decrease cost and make construction easier. However this may result in a boring and similar architecture without a real value.

THE FUTURE FOR MULTI-RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION

In Europe and North America, prefabricated and panelised timber construction has been used for many years and has become highly developed in efficient and cost-effective residential dwellings and multi-storey buildings.

Prefabricated wood panel systems is now becoming the preferred building material in residential construction, and in Australia we started to follow the trend last year with the construction of the all timber 10 storey ‘Forte’ by developer Lend Lease in Melbourne’s Docklands.

This emerging revolution in construction will be extensively discussed at the Frame Australia 2014 conference and exhibition, titled “Prefab Timber and Engineered Wood in Building Construction” at Park Hyatt Melbourne on May 19.

The most common timber building system presently used for dwellings in Australia is pre-fabricated timber trusses and frames, however rapidly emerging are complete floor cassettes and panellised walls, prefabricated and installed on site by mobile crane.

As an example, a multi-residential building project by Australand Property Group is a 57 apartment 5 storey building in in the Melbourne suburb of Parkville, which was completed in only 11 months by utilising timber panel systems in construction.

The project uses prefabricated timber walls and roof, with complete cassette timber floors craned into place on each building level.

During construction they completed 400 square metres per day, with 11 day floor cycles to have all load bearing and partition walls in place, which enabled installation of services to commence a day later.

The floor cassette system was designed and manufactured by Tilling SmartFloor with the key element of TECBEAM™ lightweight steel and timber composite structural beams, which demonstrate many superior performance characteristics when compared with other joists.

TECBEAM™ is designed and manufactured in Australia with worldwide patents for its technology and is exclusively produced and distributed by Tilling Timber.

Rob De Brincat of Tilling SmartStruct said “The Australand Parkville project is a testament to the advantages of prefabricated timber systems and how all segments of the industry can work together to successfully deliver a large scale residential project with one of the biggest developers in the country”

“SmartFloor is a light-weight prefabricated floor cassette system that is a fast and safe method of structural floor erection that results in a significant reduction in construction programing, and in turn development costs”.

“The SmartFloor cassette system with TECBEAM™ has the same spanning capabilities of reinforced concrete but at a much lighter construction weight, which allows the cassettes to be installed using mobile cranes resulting in substantial savings in both the erection process and skilled labour costs” he added.

“Not only are we providing new and exciting product for the Australian market, but we have set up a support structure in the SmartStruct system to develop an timber solution for virtually any building type and to provide help and advice in every aspect from concept to construction” Rob concluded.

The shift to using prefabricated timber panel construction systems is a response to increasing demand for medium-density housing in our major cities, which is essential if our population is to continue growing and remain sustainable.

Furthermore, timber panel systems provide significant opportunities to move beyond the current levels of building site productivity, health and safety, speed of construction and build quality.

http://www.tecbuild.com.au/multi-residential-construction-prefabricated-floors-tecbeam/ 

HIGH PERFORMANCE BUILDING ENVELOPE

Design strategies to maximize building envelope performance

THE CONTEXT

Historically, relaxed energy laws in the United States provided few limits in architectural expression, materials, and construction choices. More recently, green labels and a focus on energy optimization and savings have made it necessary for architects to better understand building science, mechanical systems, and envelope technology to ensure design endeavors comply with or exceed code.

Current efforts to optimize building performance often rely heavily on mechanical systems and energy usage. There is an opportunity for architects to more carefully consider building skin as a way to better integrate passive strategies. When properly implemented, such strategies can have a significant effect on overall building performance.

THE RESULTS

A high-performance building façade allows building envelopes and comfort systems to act in concert and is responsive to changing exterior and interior conditions. The role of high-performance skins is to protect the building from the elements, provide the occupants with fresh-air exchanges, collect solar energy through various technologies, harvest rainwater for cistern storage, heat water, and provide daylight and views to occupants while minimizing glare.

Passive strategies include low- or no-technology solutions such as the selection of a building site or orientation that contributes to the performance of a building. The early incorporation of passive strategies often mitigates the need for more active strategies that are usually more reliant on technology and building systems. Active strategies can also be considered on a shorter-term basis— building technology can be changed as it becomes obsolete or newer strategies come to market; passive strategies tend to be more permanent and represent investments across the building’s life cycle.

WHAT THIS MEANS

Maximize occupant shelter and comfort. In many cases, passive design can deliver a more pleasant environment (natural ventilation is more comfortable than forced-air systems) while also increasing energy efficiency and reducing life-cycle costs.

Design with the least amount of technology and systems necessary. This better aligns investment with long-term performance and sustainability goals, and saves money in the short run.

Consider passive design early. Designers need to ask new questions at critical points in the project process. Clear reference tools can promote discussions around façade and system strategies with consultants and clients. Informed discussions lead to energy-efficient buildings that can more readily meet, and exceed, stringent codes and regulations.

Use skin as a standard. Human skin reacts to environmental conditions, opening or closing to manage internal environment and using evaporation to reject heat.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Looking to the future of building façades, much of the industry expects continued developments in glass technology to create increasingly high-performance single-skin façades that will better address issues such as heat gain, insulation, solar performance, and energy generation (via integrated photovoltaic panels that also provide shading, as an example). Presently, these systems are not able to attain the same levels of performance achieved through multilayered building skin systems (such as those Gensler is using on the Shanghai Tower or The Tower at PNC Plaza).

TEAM

Olivier Sommerhalder, Sanjeev Tankha, Robert Garlipp, Shira Zur

YEAR COMPLETED

2011

KIEFER TECHNIC SHOWROOM - Dynamic facade

THE DYNAMIC SOLAR SHADING OF KIEFER TECHNIC SHOWROOM

Address	8344 Bad Gleichenberg, Steiermark
Building Company	Harald Kiefer Metallbau GmbH
Architekt:	DI Ernst Giselbrecht
Partners	DI Peter Fürnschuss
Fachplaner:	Haustechnik: Planungsbüro Greile, 9330 Althofen Ausführungsstatik: CMB GmbH, 8330 Feldbach
Planning	Herbst 2005 - Sommer 2006
Start	Frühjahr 2006
Finish	Sommer 2007
Technical Data	Nettogeschoßfläche: 420 m² Bruttogeschoßfläche: 545 m² Umbauter Raum: 4.270 m³
Building info	Bürogebäude samt Ausstellungsflächen zur Produktpräsentation Rohbau: Ziegelmassivwände; Stahlbetondecken; entlang der Fassade betonverfüllte Stahlsäulen Fassaden: Alu-Pfosten-Riegel-Fassade mit vorgelagerten Putzstegen bzw. WDVS-Fassade, weiss geputzt Sonnenschutz: Alu-Lochblech-Klappläden, elektrisch betriebe

§The Kiefer Technic Showroom is a hybrid exhibition space and office building in Bad Gleichenberg, Austria that moves according to the general weather conditions. It is a pertinent example of modern interactive architecture with an outer framework of 112 tiles that shift and fold into rows on command.

§The façade expands and contracts to regulate the amount of sunlight permitted to the interior. This responsive design minimises the necessity of air conditioning by maintaining a constantly moving shield against external heat.

§Architect Ernst Giselbrecht explained the shift in modern architecture that allowed the outer shell of the building to be treated in its entirety, rather than having to accommodate ranked sections of the structure.

§THE SKELETAL FRAME comprises solid brick faces, bolstered cement ceilings and steel-encased columns

§THE FACADE consist of aluminums posts and transoms with protruding bridges for maintenance, with an EIFS-facade in white plaster. The sun screen operates on electronic shutters .The shifting façade is powered by 56 engines that activate automated shutters and folding panels of perforated aluminium.

REFERENCES:

§http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/dynamic-solar-shading-kiefer-technic-showroom

§https://www.architonic.com/en/project/ernst-giselbrecht-partner-dynamic-facade-kiefer-technic-showroom/5100449

§http://www.c-sgroup.com/louvers

§http://www.archdaily.com/89270/kiefer-technic-showroom-ernst-giselbrecht-partner?ad_medium=widget&ad_name=recommendation

§http://giselbrecht.at/projekte/gewerbe_industriebauten/kiefer/index.html