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Bubble Deck Technology Uses Less Concrete by Filing The Slab With Beach Balls

Concrete is heavy, and 5% of the world’s CO2 is created during the manufacture of the cement that goes into it. Then there is the aggregate that is dug out and the trucks that have to carry it. Not only that, but most of the concrete that is in a slab isn’t even needed; it is just a spacer between the bottom, where the reinforcing steel is in tension, and the top, where the concrete is in compression.

© MATT Construction

BubbleDeck is a really clever solution to this problem: it fills the slab with plastic balls that are held in place in prefabricated assemblies of reinforcing. It has been used a few times in Canada, and Archdaily shows the first above-grade installation of BubbleDeck in the United States, at Harvey Mudd College.

© MATT Construction

MATT Construction describes it in Archdaily:

BubbleDeck is a biaxial technology that increases span lengths and makes floors thinner by reducing the weight while maintaining the performance of reinforced concrete slabs. The concept is based on the fact that the area between columns of a solid slab has limited structural effect beyond adding weight. Replacing this area with a grid of “voids” sandwiched between layers of reinforcing welded wire steel and an internal lattice girder yields a slab typically 35% lighter that performs like solid reinforced concrete. Once the steel lattice/void “sandwich” is concreted, it is then precast into panels of various sizes and craned into position on shoring. Once concrete is poured over the balls in the panels, the BubbleDeck system effectively becomes, and behaves like, a monolithic two-way slab that distributes force uniformly and continuously.

© MATT Construction

Bubbledeck Canada claims that it produces floors 20% faster with less formwork and beams, reduces construction costs by 10% and agrees with the 35% reduction in concrete use. “Off-site manufacturing, fewer vehicle movements and crane lifts and simple installation all combine to minimise operating as well as health & safety risks.”

ORIGINAL POST HERE :

Bubble Deck Technology Uses Less Concrete by Filing The Slab With Beach Balls

New Rating System,Envisions Sustainable Infrastructure

envision™ Sustainability Rating System

Envision™ is the product of a joint collaboration between the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

Introduction

Envision™ provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental, and economic benefits of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects.

The Envision™ Rating System evaluates, grades, and gives recognition to infrastructure projects that use transformational, collaborative approaches to assess the sustainability indicators over the course of the project’s life cycle.

Who Can Use Envision™

Envision™ can be used by infrastructure owners, design teams, community groups, environmental organizations, constructors, regulators, and policy makers.

• Meet sustainability goals.
• Be publicly recognized for high levels of achievement in sustainability.
• Help communities and project teams to collaborate and discuss, “Are we doing the right project?” and, “Are we doing the project right”.
• Make decisions about the investment of scarce resources.
• Include community priorities in civil infrastructure projects.

The Envision™ tools help the design team:

• Assess costs and benefits over the project lifecycle.
• Evaluate environmental benefits.
• Use outcome-based objectives.
• Reach higher levels of sustainability achievement.

Projects Envision™ Can Be Used On

Envision™ has assessment tools that can be used for infrastructure projects of all types, sizes, complexities, and locations.

The Assessment Tools

• Stage 1 — Self-assessment checklist.
  • A self-assessment checklist and educational tool that helps familiarize people involved in infrastructure projects with the sustainability aspects of the project.
  • Available Spring 2012.
• Stage 2 — Third-party, objective rating verification. Public recognition.
  • Allows the owner or project team to submit the project for recognition.
  • Includes a guidance manual and scoring system.
  • Requires someone trained in the use of the Envision™ rating system to be an integral part of the project team to document sustainability achievements.
  • An independent, third-party Verifier will validate the project team’s assessment.
  • Stage 2, preconstruction, available January 2012. Construction and Operations and Maintenance phases available in mid-2012.
• Stage 3 — Tool for complex or multi-stage projects. Available after 2012.
• Stage 4 — Optimization support tool. Available after 2012.

The People

• ISI Sustainability Professional
  • Someone who is trained in the use of the Envision™ rating system and is credentialed by ISI.
  • An integral part of a project team who guides the team in achieving higher levels of sustainability, documents project sustainability accomplishments, and submits the project for recognition.
• Verifier
  • An independent, third-party that works with the ISI SP to validate their assessment of a project.

Envision™ Credits and Scoring Module

The Envision™ Stage 2 Rating Tool is made up of 60 credits divided into five sections: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk.

Each Envision™ credit is described in a 2-page write-up that includes the intent, metric, levels of achievement, description, an explanation of how to advance to a higher achievement level, evaluation criteria and documentation, sources, and related credits.

A Few Ways to Get Involved

• Education and Professional Credentialing
  • Take the ISI SP course to learn how to use the rating system and apply for project recognition.
  • Apply to become an ISI Sustainability Professional and help guide project teams through the Envision™ Stage 2 rating tool.
• ISI Membership
  • Join as a Charter or Sustaining Member for in-depth involvement in ISI.
  • Other memberships available for trade and professional associations, public sector agencies, and academics.
  • Members pricing on ISI training materials, meetings, certification application fees, publications, and other products and services.

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New Rating System “Envisions” Sustainable Infrastructure

10 Creative Reuse Ideas for the Garden Real Simple

While you may think some of your stuff has hit the end its life cyle, or is only good for one thing, much of it could be leading a double life in your garden! Before you give them the heave-ho, check out Real Simple’s great list of 46 new uses for old things in the garden; here are our 10 favorite ideas. More Read More..

One Family’s Story: Keeping Chickens in LA

The trend toward keeping backyard livestock in urban and suburban areas seems only to be growing. We’ve featured plenty of chicken coop designs in the past, but we loved this homemade coop in a small backyard in Los Angeles so much that we wanted to share the story.

Irwin Miller, whose kids’ room we featured for its clever use of small space, inherited some chickens from his son’s school. He explains how the whole addition

Novice Carpenter Builds a Secret, Illegal Tree House on Crown Land in Canada

Joel Allen didn’t expect to end up building a secret cabin on land he didn’t own in British Columbia. First he thought he would work in software (that didn’t work out), then he retired at the age of 26 (didn’t work out either). After befriending a self-taught carpenter, Allen was inspired to go into the field himself. He headed to Whistler, north of Vancouver, lived out of his car and looked for work.

Allen spent a lot of time in the woods, and realized he wanted his own hideaway. Working with architect friends, he designed an egg-shaped tree house. After a two month search for the perfect tree, he found his spot, on publicly owned….

The (Nearly) Weed-Free Garden

Either he knows a lot about gardening, or he’s a whiz at Photoshop. I’m betting on the first.

Lee has a four-part system for beating the weeds:

– Don’t disturb the soil. (prevents buried weed seeds from surfacing and germinating.)
– Set up permanent beds and paths. (so you won’t have to till to aerate the soil.)
– Keep the soil ….

They’re Baaack: Average House Size Shoots Up To Highest Ever

As the housing market entered its steep decline during the latter part of the past decade, it took home sizes with it. While there was much to bemoan about the state of the industry, among designers and architects it seemed the one bright spot was what appeared to be the demise of the McMansion and an increased focus on efficient functionality. Between 2007 and 2010, the average size of a new, single-family home in the U.S. fell from 2,504 square feet to 2,381 square feet, according to U.S. Census data. It was the rise of smaller and smarter.

Or was it?

“For all these years, the trend was going [down], and then in 2011 it got reversed,” says Rose Quint, assistant vice president of survey research at the National Association of Home Builders

Beat the heat: how a new type of eco home is helping tackle global warming

Beat the heat: how a new type of eco home is helping tackle global warming The Ecologist The heat storage capacity of different materials is one of the most important features of building a passive house , explains Swift, which is why several of the designs on the site are partly buried underground, to make the most of the constant …

Habitat builds passive house in Berea

Habitat builds passive house in Berea Lexington Herald Leader A family in Berea is getting an energy-efficient home from Habitat for Humanity. The Richmond Register (http://bit.ly/HkaBZC) reports it is Habitat for Humanity’s first ” passive ” home in the state, which means it exceeds federal Energy Star ratings and … Berea family getting Habitat’s first; Passive home in Kentucky.

New App Will Monitor Residential Energy Usage

A new Facebook app will enable consumers to quickly and easily benchmark their home’s energy usage against similar homes, compare energy use with friends, and share tips on how to become more energy efficient.

The social energy app is an initiative of Facebook, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), software provider Opower, and 16 utility companies. More than 20 million households within the 16 participating utilities’ territories will be able to take advantage of the app’s “Utility Connect” feature, allowing customers to choose to have their energy use automatically update each ….