Concrete Perspectives September 2017

Construction Sector 

Concrete Initiative holds Energy Efficiency debate

On 25 September, The Concrete Initiative held a lunch event titled “Energy storage in buildings – the potential in the Energy Package” hosted with MEP Bernd Lange in the Representation of Lower Saxony.

The event explored the untapped building thermal storage capacity in playing a role in a greater renewable energy uptake by ensuring flexibility.

For further information please click here.

Fire Safe Europe holds Roundtable event on MEPs Against Cancer Roundtable series – Firefighters at high risk of getting cancer[1]

On 28 September, host MEP Pavel Poc (S&D, CZ) and the Members Against Cancer (MAC) Group, in association with Fire Safe Europe held a Roundtable debate on fighting against the high risk of getting a cancer for firefighters.

A study of 16,422 Nordic firefighters, led by Prof Eero Pukkala, Director for Research at Finnish Cancer Registry, showed an increased risk of prostate cancer, skin melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, multiple myeloma and adenocarcinoma of the lung, as well as mesothelioma.

Dr. Anna Stec, Assoc. Professor at the University of Central Lancashire, led a study on firefighters and their work environment in the UK showing dangerous levels of exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

Dr. Ondřej Májek of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic (ÚZIS ČR), together with Assoc. Professor Ladislav Dušek, Director of ÚZIS ČR, will present the possibilities of the Czech National Healthcare Information System (mortality long-term analysis, 100% of cancer diagnoses and all other chronic diseases, morbidity statistics). The key issue is data protection standards.

Following the presentations, a good discussion developed and there was a general agreement that construction products should be tested for smoke toxicity.

[1] Source: Fire Safe Europe

BIBM co-sponsorship of ICSA2019

BIBM is institutional sponsor of the 4th International Conference on Structures and Architecture is the world’s leading and largest global conferences bridging the gap between Structures and Architecture. The next edition will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, July 24-26, 2019 (www.icsa2019.com).

Live from the European Union

European Commission publishes Communication on “Investing in a smart, innovative and sustainable Industry: a renewed Industrial Strategy for Europe”

Thanks to the advocacy of the Joint Declaration signed by 130 signatories -including BIBM- , in his State of Union speech, President Juncker gave an important place for the industry and expressed his wish to make it stronger and more competitive.

In accordance with his speech, the European Commission published a Communication entitled “Investing in a smart, innovative and sustainable Industry: a renewed Industrial Strategy for Europe”.

The Signatories now working on the development of a joint reaction paper based on the EC Communication. This “reaction paper” will be used to meet with the Estonian Presidency at the end of October and advocate to make our points in the Council Conclusions and Presidency Report.

The Communication itself has a good, holistic approach however it misses concrete future actions and rather only provide a list of already ongoing initiatives. The annual Industry Day and the High Level Industrial Roundtable are nice initiatives and it provides an opportunity to the industry and Member States to shape the strategy. Its success will probably depend on the implementation and on the active cooperation among industry, regions and Member States.

The Commission incorporated several points found in the original Joint Declaration, such as:

  • Better regulation (simpler, avoid extensive regulation)
  • Attract more foreign investment
  • Capital market union and start-up initiative to ensure better financing
  • Focus on Internal Market (Digitalisation and Standards).

European Commission launches Fire Information Exchange Platform[1]

The European Parliament debated fire safety in buildings for the first time on 13 September. Thanks to the support of many Europeans, including a respectable number of Members of the European Parliament, who took the floor to urge the European Commission to act, the European Commission announced at that meeting that it would create a platform to discuss fire safety with Member States and stakeholders.

On 16 October, the very first meeting of the new Fire Information Exchange Platform (FIEP) will be organised by the European Commission in Brussels.

This meeting will bring together Member States and stakeholders to discuss fire safety in building issues, exchange data, best practices and lessons learnt on fire safety in buildings.

This platform follows the initiative taken by the Republic of Slovakia during its presidency of the Council of the European Union last year to organise a Member State Roundtable on fire safety in buildings. The conclusions of this 29 November 2016 roundtable will be presented by a Slovak representative.

This platform is also supported by the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The meeting is expected to discuss, among other issues:

  • The ongoing studies on smoke toxicity and on developing an EU approach to the fire assessment of facades.
  • Fire safety in high rise buildings
  • Eurocodes standards & the use of fire engineering principles

Fire Safe Europe welcomes this initiative by the European Commission and stands ready to support the work of the platform. FSEU has high hopes that the EU will also develop a fire safety strategy moving forward.

[1] Source: Fire Safe Europe

National Award Winner Project

AZIYADÉ Residence – La Rochelle, France

AZIYADÉ is a student residence of 92 apartments, designed by HOBO ARCHITECTURE. Its architecture evokes the Mediterranean so dear to Pierre Loti, writer and naval officer of the 19th century, a native of Rochefort. Man of land, sailor, a great traveller, he inspired this project design for the youth open to the world and to its connections.

The name of the Residence is the name of his first novel.

HOBO ARCHITECTURE develops ultra-industrial solutions in the concrete sector for housing.

The AZIYADÉ project for the CROUS in La Rochelle integrates the process of prefabrication of the constituents of the envelope and technical batches in the design and implementation process.

The residence of 92 student dwellings will be completed in less than 7 months with elements completely dry assembled.

The approach associates the constituents of envelope and technical batches. After this , the actual realization on the site is a quick and simple task.

La Rochelle is in level 3 zone seismic activity. The objective of HOBO ARCHITECTURE is always to improve the architectural quality, the quality of realization and use of the premises without giving in to purely economic reasons. To optimise costs, delay management and the reduction of uncertainties were crucial.

The use of self-placing concrete also makes it possible to propose other decorative approaches that are very perennial and integrated into the wall and ceiling matrices.

All phases of the project were carried out with the digital model (REVIT) and BIM processes.

This 3D digital avatar was used to carry out seismic, thermal and environmental simulations (sunshine – winds …).

The 3D synthesis facilitated the integration of elements before delivery on site, as well as all the installation of electrical services, carpentry (doors, hatches, windows) and external railings.

The buildings are made up of elements, all made of prefabricated concrete, with a volume of concrete of 1 500 m3.

• 99 sandwich panels with a thickness of 38 cm (1,550 m2, grey finish, white or polished white depending on the location),

• internal partitions and other structural panels with an area of ​​3,037 m2

• 99 floor slabs with a thickness of 20 cm and an area of ​​2 080 m2

• 52 waffled slabs with an area of ​​1,052 m2

• 72 outdoor deck floors

• And other products (poles, beams, stairs, bearings).

News in brief 

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Agenda 

OCTOBER 2017

04 October

CEN/TC 229/WG 4

Brussels, Belgium

04 October

Financing Sustainability (Concrete Initiative)

Brussels, Belgium

05 October

ECP TF Sustainable Concrete

Brussels, Belgium

09-10 October

CEN/TC 104/SC 1/TG 20

Paris, France

12 October

CPE Sustainability WG

Brussels, Belgium

12 October

SG 13 Notified Bodies

Vienna, Austria

19 October

BIBM Communication Commission

Brussels, Belgium

24-25 October

VEEP General Assembly

Delft, The Netherlands

27 October

ECP Board

Brussels, Belgium

NOVEMBER

7 November

BIBM Environment Commission

Brussels, Belgium

8 November

CSC General Assembly

Heidelberg, Germany

14 November

ECP TF Fire and Eurocodes

Brussels, Belgium

15 November

CPE TF CPR Implementation

Brussels, Belgium

20 November

BIBM Board meeting

Brussels, Belgium

21 November

Concrete Dialogue

Brussels, Belgium

23 November

ECP TF HEH

Brussels, Belgium

28 November

BIBM Wastewater Engineering

Brussels, Belgium

29 November

BIBM TF Eurocode 2

Brussels, Belgium

To the Newsletter of Construction Products Europe (former CEPMC), please follow this link.

To read the Newsletter of CEMBUREAU, please follow this link. You can also subscribe directly following this link http://www.cembureau.eu/newsletter/subscriptions.

To read the Quarterly Newsletter of The Concrete Initiative, please follow this link.

List of Acronyms:

CPE – Construction Product Europe

CSC – Concrete Sustainability Council

DG GROW – Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

ECP – European Concrete Platform

EMA – European Masonry Alliance

IPHA – International Pre-stressed Hollowcore Association

TF – Task Force