THE SCALE OF BUILDING
RESEARCH IN
OLASTIC paint, tiles and work.
tops, domestic central heating. tower cranes. packed bricks, power- ed scrapers, precast concrete, mana- gement, programming all of these have either been introduced or have seen great development in the last ten or twelve years.
In 1950, there were no tower cranes in Britain, now there are more than 2,000; the use of ready- mixed concrete was minimal, now more than 20 per cent, of all con- crete placed is in this form, manage ment then was little more than an O.K. word, now it is an established subject in the training of the pro- fessional builder. For an industry, so often accused of technical conser- vatism and an unwillingness to in- novate, these are substantial and rapid changes.
Building research is concerned with providing information to help builder and designer, material pro- ducer and user, to meet the problems consequent of living in a rapidly changing and increasingly technical world.
BUILDING RESEARCH
STATION
Building research in Britain is by no means the sole prerogative of the Building Research Station at Garston, Hertfordshire. England. A number of the research associations are con- cerned with particular building materials, such as brick, concrete or timber, and several of the larger construction firms maintain sizeable research and development organisa- tions.
But the Building Research Station is the only body which is concerned with all aspects of building, with materials and structures, with the functional aspects of heating, light- ing and noise, with the reaction of the user to the building he occupies or to his urban environment. with
BRITAIN
building operations and economics and with the complex problems of communication between the exces sively separated sectors of the indus- try. Its scope can best be appreciat ed from a few examples of its work.
By
J.B. WESTON, Ph. D., of
Britain's Building Research Station, Garston, Herts.
The building industry in Britain uses such vast amounts of materials --13.000.000 tons of cement, 80.-
000.000 tons of sand and gravel, 20,000,000 tons of bricks that it acts as a constant source of attrac- tion to other industries with large quantities of industrial waste which might be suitable for building pur- poses.
The Central Electricity Generating Board, for instance, was embarras- sed by the disposal of the ash result- ing from burning pulverised fuel in power stations. As a result of re- search and development carried out by the Station, it has now been found possible to use this material in the manufacture of bricks, for aerated concrete and, when formed into pellets and fired, to produce a first-class lightweight aggregate.
As a result of the development of the lightweight aggregate alone, the Central Electricity Generating Board
A pilot plant at Britain's Building Research Station at Garston, Hert- fordshire, England, for the production of lightweight aggregate from pulverised fuel ash. The use of this former waste material in building ▼ and civil engineering shows a substantial saving.
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 18, NUMBER 2
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