world news
World Congress for Housing and Planning
URBAN transportation, urban pattern; and Housing stand- ards for low and lowest income groups in relation to the national level of economic and social development, are the themes for the 28th World Congress of the Inter- national Federation of Housing and Planning. The con- gress will be held in Tokyo from May 8 to 14. 1966.
People working in the fields of housing and plan- ning may be registered as active members of the congress and may attend all the working sessions, lectures and tours. During the congress an international exhibition on urban renewal will be opened at the Matsuya Depart- ment Store.
The address of the Preparatory Committee for the Congress is: C/o JASOPH, City Planning Association of Japan, No. 9, 2-Chome. Hirakawa-Cho, Chiyoda-Ku. Tokyo.
High Rate of Housing Construction in Sweden
SWEDEN succeeded in constructing ten new housing units per 1,000 inhabitants annually in 1962 and 1963 and, with West Germany and Switzerland, has the highest rate among European countries, according to a recent OECD report.
During the past ten years, between five and six per cent of the Swedish gross national product has been de voted to housing a figure which has tended to increase somewhat since 1960. New investments in other build- ing and construction amount to between eight and 9.5 per cent during the same period.
The standards set for present housing construction in Sweden are comparatively high, due in part to the fact
that government loans, granted on favourable terms, can be obtained for houses with a high standard of equipment. The Royal Swedish Housing Board also issues general re- commendations regarding planning and standards.
The trend of the 1960's is an ever increasing use of factory-made elements and complete room units. The labour force is also being used in a more efficient way. During the past 15 years worktime per cubic metre of building volume has fallen by approximately half.
With the more industrialized construction, standardi- zation has become more urgent. Within the Swedish or- ganization for standardization, a special committee has been formed representing all interested parties in the build- ing sector. The committee has worked for 20 years and issued some 200 new standards.
In principle, work is divided into basic standardiza- tion and production standardization. Examples of the former are modular co-ordination, tolerances and heights of storeys. Production standardization comprises mea- surements and to some extent the quality of products. building components, places of storage and aids on the building site.
Flexural Mechanics of Reinforced Concrete
THE complete proceedings of the 1964 International Sym- posium on Flexural Mechanics of Reinforced Concrete a 601-page publication has now been released through the American Concrete Institute and the American So- ciety of Civil Engineers.
Held in conjunction with the 1964 ACI Fall Con- vention in Miami, Florida, the purpose of this Interna- tional Symposium was to present the results of recent work directed specifically toward the development of tract- able design methods based upon the complex, non-ideal flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete. In addition to providing a more basic understanding of this behaviour. the aim of the symposium and, ultimately this publica- tion, is to further both immediate and long-range objec- tives in improving the analytical and statistical basis for the flexural design of reinforced concrete.
Of primary concern in many of the papers is the prediction of the mechanical behaviour of structural con- crete elements reinforced as well as prestressed, under monotonically increased loads as well as load reversals. The authors bring out the importance of including inelas- tic behaviour of materials in predicting this mechanical be- haviour of structural elements. One paper stresses the point that even under service loads, considerable redistri- bution of moments can occur in ordinarily reinforced con- crete beams due to inelastic action introduced by cracks.
Artist's impression of the main entrance to the proposed Joseph Regenstein Library at University of Chicago. graduate and research library will house a collection of about 3,000,000 volumes.
Emphasis is placed in the design on reader environment and easy access to the collection.
some 2,500 readers. There are 250 private faculty studies and the remaining places are in individual study carels. tion will be kept in an air-conditioned, humidified and filtered environment.
The 500,000 sq. ft.
Study facilities are provided for The collec-
Cost of the building is estimated at US$18 million. The architects are Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Chicago office.
Far East Architect & Builder March, 1966
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