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A structure highly insulated, fast build, lower cost

  • 1.  A structure highly insulated, fast build, lower cost

    Posted 03-24-2014 08:28 PM
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Technical Design for Building Performance Knowledge Community and Small Project Practitioners .
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    Eugenio Aburto AIA
    Eugenio Aburto, AIA
    Palm Desert CA
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    Please see and tell me what do you think, Thanks


  • 2.  RE:A structure highly insulated, fast build, lower cost

    Posted 03-26-2014 09:30 AM
    Eugenio,

    I am a little confused about what you are promoting.  The image appears to be a heavily reinforced concrete wall (looks like a retaining wall type grid), with bars turned into the lower and upper floors to be encased in concrete to form a top and bottom braced concrete structural wall.  That part is pretty normal looking.  It appears that blocks of insulation are going to be place between vertical rods to create reinforced vertical concrete bracing ribs at about two feet on center.  I am guessing the insulation blocks stay there and all is covered with channels and gyp bd.

    We are in the middle of the country where FEMA community and school tornado shelters are becoming very common.  We have found just pre-casting the walls, trucking them, and erecting them on site to be less expensive than all of this on site forming, rebar, and casting in place.  We are talking large structures that far exceed hurricane force requirements in strength.  We normally use a flat wall slab finding it much more efficient to just increase the thickness of the concrete a little rather than casting vertical ribs onto the wall panels.  (We do use precast double tees on the roof where long spans need the beam effect of the tees.)  Th insulation is normally on the exterior of the wall and roof which lets the thermal mass of the concrete help hold the interior temperature constant.  Most of the time, the concrete is touched up and painted.

    Is there something new here that I am missing?

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    Darrel Odom AIA, LEED AP
    President
    Odom Peckham Architecture, Inc.
    Little Rock AR
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