Smart Building Materials אדריכלות ישראלית Architecture of Israel #138 August 2024 | 72 | food for work smart building materials - global vs. local Dr. Hillit Mazor Combining a number of "dumb" materials in order to get a synergic smarter one is not new, of course, and was already mentioned in building stories from the Bible - from mud bricks containing straw which serve both as a building component resistant to expansion and bending while also providing good insulation. Another composite material, which was invented in 1868 by the French gardener Joseph Monier and later became a signal point in the history of architecture was reinforced concrete, which he used in building concrete planters capable of resisting root expansion. From there progress was made by the invention of reinforced concrete as a smart combination of two construction materials with a similar expansion coefficient – one, iron, which resists expansion, and the other, cement, which resists bending when it hardens. This connection actually led to one of the most significant defining stages in the history of architecture, with its final development in the mid-19th century by French engineer Jean-Louis Lambot. From then on, reinforced concrete became a most common construction material – a global product that completely cancelled the structural need for traditional stone arches and vaults. In 1928, the French engineer Eugène Freyssinet improved the iron rod while inventing pre-stressed concrete. Smart materials are meant to improve the efficiency, durability and compatibility of building materials in their surroundings, especially locally available materials which are forced to compete with relatively cheap imported building systems. In recent years there has been huge development in the production of composite materials - those made of a combination of several materials, each contributing its beneficial characteristic to a specific requirement of the building. With all the benefits of such materials, their global availability and identity greatly diminish the characteristics of the local identity of place, not to mention that their simple implementation can save work time of local conventional workers. For about one hundred and fifty years concrete continued to be a major building material, though its main weakness was corrosion, which attacks the metal skeleton under moist and especially salty conditions, spurring the search for a superior replacement with other stretchable materials, such as fiberglass and other carbon or polymer fibers. Notable in this area, GRC products (glassfiber reinforced concrete) has been used in the last three decades to produce cheap substitutes for decorative architecture details, using casting templates that are now easily formed by CNC machines. Continuing this line, building materials reinforced with polymers were also developed in various parts of the world, some porous, which expand when heated, self-healing as cracks are filled with themselves. The climax in the manufacture of smart materials is undoubtedly cladding panels (usually Chinese) based on flexible vinyl, or a hard carbonate which dominate the cladding market due to their amazingly swift implementation without the need for much professional knowledge. All this with a smart combination of strength, durability, sealing and insulation tailored to global thermal standards, while lurking in the background is 'nanotechnology,' which enables physicalchemical changes in the properties of materials, their durability and efficiency in terms of loads that are based on the skeleton of the structure. Another interesting development in this field is transparent aluminum, which preserves its strength while maintaining the low weight of standard aluminum. Because it is actually a strong metallic material with glass qualities, its use may greatly reduce the weight of buildings, improve the safety component, greatly simplify the construction process and largely expand special visual effect. Interestingly, aluminum powder had already been used during the Hellenistic period as a coagulant, although the discovery of its properties as a metallic substance occurred only in the mid -nineteenth century. This caused Napoleon, who was enthusiastic about metal's special and powerful features for the replacement of the metal crosses in his palace with aluminum to order that eating utensils also be made of aluminum. And a word of summation… Ironically, one of the factors which inhibits the use of state-of-the art materials is actually regulations and construction bylaws, which require unnecessary quality control bodies, not to mention the unnecessary waste of thousands of work hours by architects and unnecessary local authority "inspectors", some of whom are lacking the skills and basic understanding required in their jobs.
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