In the recent years, builders and architects have mainly preferred Alucobond as a construction material to turn their ideas into reality. For every project, strategy is to achieve a smooth completion lies in an early co-ordination between vision, architectural plans and the many possibilities which unique panels give to fabricators and installers. Part of the success of Alucobond is due to its durability and resistance against corrosion.
Alucobond adapts perfectly to the building’s contours. It can easily be cut and shaped, without having to compromise on the factory applied surface finish. Whether soft curves or straight lines rising into the sky, Alucobond provides an economical design. The superb properties of this material boost inspiration and offer a whole new range of innovative solutions to the building designs.
In India Alucobond is extensively used mainly in the construction of office buildings in the major cities. Thus, it has become modern building material and now has form a corporate identity.
Inspiration :
Designers and builders are attracted by the extraordinary flatness of Alucobond. Alucobond is unbeatable when it comes to colour consistency, excellent formability, flatness, rigidity, weather resistance and ease of maintenance. The combination of all these advantageous characteristics makes Alucobond one of the most versatile materials for interior and exterior design.
Alucobond also inspires new horizons in interior decoration, be it for galleries, reception areas, passage ways, shops, airports, banks or trade fairs and exhibitions. Through the use of exclusive colours and innovative shapes, this material offers impressive decorative solutions for the creation of outstanding and unique interior designs.
The graph above shows that Alucobond panels achieve required rigidity with minimum thickness and deadweight as compared to the other materials.
Need of research:
Nowadays Alucobond has been extensively used in the construction and its use is going to increase in the future. Thus there is need to check the sustainability of the material towards the environment and its impact on the nature.
The effects of Global Warming have created the need of research on such extensively used products in different fields all over the world. The worldwide organizations are studying impact on these materials on the nature. All these research is based on the life-cycle of such a materials.
Also there is need of research on the worldwide use of the Alucobond. The use of Alucobond is efficiently proven suitable for the climate in the cold countries. But its use in tropical countries like India needs to be study to check its suitability.
- Case Studies -
In India, the major cities like Pune, Bangalore are getting developed with a predominant growth of information technology sector and its associated infrastructure. All these IT structures are coming out with the extensive use of Alucobond enveloped exterior giving it corporate identity.
These buildings are producing impact of modernization on the surroundings. There is need to study its impact on the users associated with the buildings. Also there seems lack of natural ventilation system. For the users of the building following questions needed to be ask.
# What does users inside feel?
# Does these buildings lack natural ventilation?
# Are the users comfortable with artificial ventilation?
- Interviews -
Amod Kamate, Computer engineer at Infosys, Hinjewadi IT Park, Pune.
“ The building really looks amazing from outside..! and from inside all the working spaces are air conditioned. So its very comfortable inside.” he said.
Shantanu Limaye, Software engineer at Infosys, Hinjewadi IT Park, Pune.
“ I don’t know about the need of natural ventilation but air condition has to be there inside. For the equipments like electronic machinery, computers etc. they needed to be protected from the dust.” says Shantanu.
Shailesh Jadhav, Maintenance dept at Infosys, Hinjewadi IT Park, Pune.
“We have to spent more money for air conditioning but it helps to reduce cost of maintenance of machines. Its like that every advantage is associated with certain disadvantage and vice versa” ,says Mr. Jadhav.
‘ The building has good aesthetics’ , the common reaction of user as well as from people in surroundings. The buildings with the combination of glass n Alucobond have certainly created the impact of modernization on the surrounding areas.
- Discussion –
Sustainability towards the environment :
Sustainability involves much more than just the environmental compatibility of a product. Instead, a broad range of sustainability aspects must be taken into account over the entire life cycle of the product, such as social impacts and long-term impacts on resource availability, climate change and consumer behavior, which can be triggered indirectly by the use of the product.
Life cycle thinking :
Life Cycle Thinking is an approach to address and analyze all the activities in regard to risks, opportunities, and value creation in order to find the best overall solutions.
At each stage of the product or service life cycle, there is resource consumption (as indicated by the green arrows) and production impacts (as indicated by the blue arrows).
A life cycle of a product starts with raw material extraction, continues with the fabrication of the products, assembling of the final product as well as its use and maintenance, and concludes with the end-of-life operations. This last stage includes recycling of materials and, after adequate treatment, final disposal of waste.
For recyclable products such as aluminum products, a life cycle can be modeled cradle-to-cradle by a product system where the recycled material can substitute primary material. Only the material that is lost at the different stages of the life cycle needs to be replaced by primary material.
Aluminum’s recyclability: the energy required to recycle aluminum is only 5% of that required to produce it from ore, and at the end of a building’s natural life, almost 90% of its aluminum is recycled.
According to the Green Building Council, an upfront investment of 2% of construction costs in green building designs, on average, results in savings of 20% over the lifecycle of the building—i.e., 10 times the initial investment. While aluminum boasts many lifecycle and environmental advantages, its “green value” in a given project is evaluated based on its performance in a specific application.
2. Impact on users of the building :
‘ The building has good aesthetics’ , the common reaction of user as well as from people in surroundings. The buildings with the combination of glass n Alucobond have certainly created the impact of modernization n corporate identity.
Need of Air-conditioning:
The no. of users working and visiting is more for such type of buildings. Thus the heat generation inside the building is also more. Also the industries have no. of electronic machinery, computers etc. which contributes a lot in the generation of heat. Therefore the use of air conditioning is must for these kind of buildings.
3. Innovation towards the energy generation :
Technology is a key part of the solution for sustainable development. Innovation and technology are tools for achieving higher resource efficiency and a reduced environmental impact. There is need of research and development toward enhancing the sustainability of production processes and developing sustainable products.
A Future project of Engineered Products showcases a photovoltaic module building application, where building facades are used for solar-based electricity production. The use of these special building and facade surfaces extends the application beyond simply protecting the building from weather impacts and providing aesthetics to also being used to generate electricity by transforming sunlight (photovoltaic). Assuming that the technological challenges of manufacturing competitive photovoltaic facade components can be solved, such modules could enable a widespread integration of sustainable energy generation into modern buildings.
- Conclusion -
Aluminum’s recyclability: the energy required to recycle aluminum is only 5% of that required to produce it from ore, and at the end of a building’s natural life, almost 90% of its aluminum is recycled. In the total life cycle of aluminum, the recycled material can substitute primary material during the production. Only the material that is lost at the different stages of the life cycle needs to be replaced by primary material. Thus aluminum proves its sustainability towards the environment.
The functions of these office buildings have removed the scope for natural ventilation. The more no. users and electronic machines, computers etc. which generates lot of heat inside these buildings. For the amount of heat generated in such buildings, natural ventilation may not be worked out efficiently. Thus the need of artificial ventilation aroused and the no. of openings on the building facades reduced. This would have led the designers and architect to envelope the buildings facades with Alucobond for good aesthetics.
Now there is need to reduced the economical load on the artificial ventilation by sustainable energy generation system. Technology is a key part of the solution for sustainable development. Alucobond panels can be manufactured as a photovoltaic module building application, where the building facades are used for solar based electricity production. Thus the use of these special building facades extends the application beyond simply protecting the building from weather impact and providing aesthetics also being use to generate electricity from sunlight. Such a module could enable a wide spread integration of sustainable energy generation into modern buildings.
- Abstract-
Nowadays the alucobond panels are extensively used to cover the external facades of the building for better aesthetical values because of its inherent properties. Thus alucobond has became modern building material. In the future its use is going to increase.
Thus there is need to study the impact of such material on environment and its sustainability towards the environment. Further the material can be look forward for the energy generation module. Also there is need to study its impact on the surroundings communities or people.
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