How could America improve building efficiency?

In any other industry, if you have a design flaw, you make changes to avoid the same problems appearing again. Why doesn’t the construction industry follow this principle? In September of 1989, I rode through Hugo in South Carolina, USA. Hugo was a category 4 storm, packing winds of 140-mph, causing 9.4 billion dollars in damage and taking 61 lives. Needless to say, this was an eye opener for someone from the Mid-West US who had never seen such devastation. Fortunately, all my family and friends survived without any major problems.

More recently, 2018 brought two major hurricanes; Florence and Michael. Both of them made landfall as category 4 storms. The combined estimate of damage was over 25 billion. The storms destroyed nearly every structure in their path turning homes, restaurants and shops into piles of rubble and debris. However, one home – known to its owners as Sand Palace – with two tiered balcony remained. The building material used in that building was reinforced concrete. So, when one ponders the question about how we can improve building efficiency, the answer is quite simple. Shift away from the building structures with sticks and start utilizing a better and more durable solution such as precast concrete.

Some may argue that precast concrete construction is more expensive, however, I would like to ask the neighbors of the Sand Palace what is their opinion of more expensive. Certainly mass destruction, clean up and total reconstruction can’t be less expensive! Not to mention loss of service and the stress of losing your home and personal belongings.

There are other natural enemies besides hurricanes that structures must resist such as fire, termites, freeze / thaw and seismic activity. Again, precast concrete is the answer in the palm of our hands, let’s use it! Did you know that precast comes only harder during years, it doesn’t burn, melt or rot? The technology helps in making buildings sturdier through the design of connections and reinforcements of precast elements. High quality precast does not breed any harmful microbes, either. Thus, I can say that precast concrete technology enables constructing truly durable buildings. Even though we have this existing solution to improve building efficiency and durability, there’s a lack of knowledge about its benefits. People need more knowledge about precast concrete not only in the US, but also in global context.

When most folks think about a concrete structure, they think of a cold grey square box. It’s simply not the case anymore – product development in precast concrete has come a long way. Nowadays, we can provide eye-pleasing architectural details that weren’t available 15 years ago. There are varied facade options to choose from: graphic, colored and painted concrete, window shaping, brick surfaces and white & black pigmentation. For example, in Finland there is a building called “Flooranaukio Apartments”, the facades of which have been decorated with curved porcelain pieces. They were attached to the wall panels at the precast plant. Another way to make precast buildings pop is to use 3D facades, which enable creating interesting sculptures.

In other words, precast is not only durable, but also a versatile construction material that improves building efficiency and can look anything you can imagine!