Transmaterial and Human Behaviour

Transmaterial and Human Behaviour by Andy Chua

LiTraCon: Light-Transmitting Concrete

Litracon™ present the singularity of light transmitting concrete in the form of a widely applicable new building material.

Litracon™ is a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete. It can be prefabricated as building blocks and panels. Due to it’s minute quality of the fiber substance, they blend well into concrete and thus becoming a part of the concrete mixture. The end results shows a interesting combination of various types of materials in this concrete in which it provided a homogeneous nature of this new building material.

<!–[if !vml]–>The glass fibres lead light by points between the two sides of the blocks. Because of their parallel position, the light-information on the brighter side of such a wall appears unchanged on the darker side. The most interesting form of this phenomenon is probably the sharp display of shadows on the opposing side of the wall. Moreover, the colour of the light also remains the same.

Thousands of optical glass fibres form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of each block. The proportion of the fibres is very small (4%) compared to the total volume of the blocks. Moreover, these fibres mingle in the concrete because of their insignificant size, and they become a structural component as a kind of modest aggregate. Therefore, the surface of the blocks remains

homogeneous concrete. In theory, a wall structure built from light-transmitting concrete can be several meters thick, because the fibres work without almost any loss in light up until 20 meters. Load-bearing structures can be also built of these blocks, since glass fibres do not have a negative effect on the well-known high compressive strength value of concrete. The blocks can be produced in various sizes and with embedded heat-isolation.

 

Like most typical building material, Litracon™ can be used as building material for walls. In this way, both sides and also the thickness of the new building material are visible. Therefore, the heaviness and solidity of concrete, the basic material of Litracon™, is more perceptible. Likewise, the contrast between the light and the material becomes sharper. Litracon™ can be used for both exterior and also for interior walls; impregnation of the surface is possible. The best recommended setting for this setup is to be oriented in a east west direction. The angle of the light travel will very much depends on the raising and the setting of the sun rays. Due to this wonderful building material. Light-Transmitting Concrete can be used as a load bearing infrastructure.

In the case of reinforcement, Litracon™ wall structure can be applied in the following: There are grooves in each Litracon™ blocks. While building the walls, one places reinforcement in these grooves – whether horizontally or vertically. The optical fibers – because they are flexible- go around the steel rod; therefore the reinforcement remains invisible. This applications been done and proved before in the European context.

Colours and textures can be customised and further develop in accordance to the demand of the market. However, conventional colour and textures are still available in their original context. But textures varies in design requirements.

However, Litracon Bt., has been manufacturing Litracon™ building blocks since 2004. With the entry of their industrial manufacturing partners, Litracon Bt. would like to concentrate more on product development and information service in the future. Therefore, they can deliver Litracon™ blocks only in limited quantity.

However, during press time, I am still unable to receive the information on the pricing, lead time and how much should I order in order not to incur too much on my taxes, frieght charges. The information or the quotation that I will received will be proposed for a new hospitality project. In which I believe that at least in the South East Asia context and the Asia Context, we are the first to introduce it here in Singapore. However the thought of incurring Euro60 for requesting a sample of 10 x 10 x 20 is on the high side, and this does not include the taxes.

And I just got this price list this morning at 2am from Europe. LitraconT Building Blocks come in a size of 600 by 300 by 100mm. The costing for each piece is EUR 315.-/pcs. Lead time for delivery is 9 months earliest. That’s a long time isn’t it?

 

High Performance Concrete

Sometimes, I do ask myself what seems the most perfect building material around. Not just me, even my colleauges and directors do ask themselves this question sometimes. And often these qualities would come across our checklist; Strength, Versatility, Flexibility, Durability, Aesthetic richness…

Many times, we just simply hope that we can combine all these qualities and suit perfectly for our projects. It is only until recently that we discover Ductal. Ductal has a combination of the following components:-

Cement Silica Fume Mineral Fillers (Nano-fibres) Water

Fibres (metallic or organic) Sand Superplasticizer

Because of these components, Ductal High Performance Concrete’s micro-structure is completely closed, making it resistant to abrasion, corrosion or chemical attack. Such superior characteristics give the material ultra-high performance durability properties.

This table shows us the water-porosity, oxygen-permeability, co-efficiency of chloride ion diffusion, and port-land content as well as benchmarking with other materials. It illustrates the ultra-high performance features of High Performance Concrete. Beside these features, High Performance Concrete is chemical stabilise, its resistance to acid attack.

And it is because of this feature, it has a self healing effect. As illustrated in this image on the right here.

Ductal®’s qualities, include: strength, ductility, fluidity and durability and it open its door to innovative users to new architectural design trends, such as pure lines. Because of it’s composite it is able to substain itself to various formations. And because of it’s formula, which enhancing its self-consolidating properties that contribute to its highly homogeneous castings and thus reducing the risk of incomplete filling and hence forth resulting in a uniform surface.

With this, architects and designers are able to form and thus use its phenomenon setup to cast anything that can be as close as marble, granite. And best of all it can cater itself to various colours and forms.
Due its architectural creativity, seeking architects and designers mixed both mineral texture and lightness to bring about its unrivalled strength, esthetics, fluidity and high complexity to mould elegantly simple shapes. High Performance Concrete is sold in package including the pre-mix powder, fibers and admixtures, This mix must be kept dry at temperatures over 10°C and used within three months. Due to this the acceleration process during the production, the maturing process of the product allows it to produce the best strength qualities it ever produced.

The center for architecture and urban planning information, documentation and exhibition center for the City of Paris, housed in a 19th century building called the Arsenal Pavilion, is home to a permanent exhibition on the history of Paris covering 1 000 m² of display area.
The architect-scenographers designed a thin, self-supporting mineral shell which covers the floor, the walls and the ceiling like a second skin, on which the exhibit is projected.
The shell was made with 18-mm thick Ductal® panels, which were covered with an electro-luminescent film and kept cutting and joints to the minimum; thereby guaranteeing excellent resistance to high-volume passage and to fire.

extracted from http://www.ductal-lafarge.com

 

3 Dimensional Surfaces

Cementations, mineral composites have been favored by architects and designers around the world for their superior fire properties, relative light weight, and absence of harmful plastic content.

ModularArts’ Sculptural panels are entirely mineral which they will not burn. The panels act as a thermal regulator when exposed to flame, protecting the materials behind them from the heat of the flame for up to two hours. ModularArts’ Sculptural Panels are suitable for interior use only.

The feel of the panel is hard, solid, and ceramic-like. The surface is a fine and smooth, extremely dense, rocklike cement. The weight of the material ranges between 1.5 and 3 lbs. per square foot depending upon the design. (For comparison, slate tiles range between 6 to 9 lbs. per square foot.) greenness & indoor air quality: modulararts® Sculptural Panels are composed entirely of nontoxic mineral and are not subject to hazardous polymerization (do not off-gas VOC’s like plastics, or formaldehyde like most MDF). They contain no accelerators, retardants, or release agents, many of which contain either probable or confirmed carcinogens. (Installation materials and chosen paints must be evaluated separately when determining environmental qualities.) In addition, we are very happy about the recent implementation of a system that entirely eliminates waste water from our manufacturing process. modularArts, Inc. now recycles ALL of the water used in manufacturing –even water that is used to rinse machinery and tooling is brought back into the process with a gravity filtration system. Our overall concern for environment and the health of our employees has been, and continues to be, a determining factor in choices of materials and invention of processes.

Because of these applications and its interesting designs, it has or will become the next claddings for interiors. In Singapore there is also a supplier that supplies this setup.

 

Series Supplies

Address: 37 Tannery Lane #04-06 Singapore 347790

Tel: +65 6749 2968

 

A standard sheet of 4ft by 8ft will cost about from range S$219 to S$950. And it depends on the stock. Normal lead time will be about 3 weeks.Installation can be done by any carpenters. And this is from Hong Kong.