New ways to build homes

Latest construction technologies are superior to the traditional methods as they enable mechanised construction, are environment-friendly, and yield faster results, finds out Bindu Gopal Rao.

Did you know a villa can be built in a day? it is no fantasy. This is a reality, thanks to new-age construction methods that are slowly, but surely, changing the face of realty sector in the days to come. Several new kinds of building technology are being used in construction today which includes precast technology, aluminium formwork construction (shear wall construction), perfabricated building technology and more. Most of the new technologies are superior to the tradition methods of construction as they enable mechanised construction, which is convenient in mass housing. Also these enable organised construction methodology, are environment-friendly and are of better quality.

They bring uniformity across projects, which makes it cost and time efficient. With lesser use of block work and plastering, reduced labour requirements and lesser material wastage, these new technologies are becoming the prefeered choice for builders. The shift is towards more of mechanisation and reducing the dependence on the manual labour, and use of technologies, which are time efficient and economical.

Thinner walls, taller buildings

According to Shameer Mohamed, Senior Project Manager, KGD-Architecture, "Traditionally, we have been building with thick brick walls taking the load of the slab and other live load. This limits the number of floors that can be built and it also takes more space as we would have thicker walls to take the load. In order to go taller and have walls of lesser thickness, building structures with columns and beams, which we call "framed structure", is the key. Framed structures are most widely used in Indian subcontinent and Middle East. In steel structures, we could achieve larger spans easily, which means having lesser columns and large open halls. This gives the flexibility to move wall partitions as per the changing interior requirements."

Look before you build

3D printing is one of the new technologies that is being applied for design and construction today. Explains Prasad Rodagi, founder＆director, Altem, "3D printed architectural models help reduce the number of involved steps, improve design time, while retaining fine details of the final architectur plan. This lets architects envision how the building would stand in the physical space and any problems could be rectified at this stage, before the construction begins, saving time and money in the entire process."