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| BAU 2013: stones and soils, bricks and roof building, natural/cast stone and outdoor design  BAU 2013 is a 180,000 m² showcase of materials, technologies and systems. That´s the equivalent of 25 football pitches filled with state-of-theart technology for the international building and construction industry. Stones/Soils This section covers a wide spectrum of materials and products: from sand-lime brick to pumice and fiber-cement building materials through to facade systems and solutions for dry construction. A particular emphasis, as in previous years, is concrete. "Building with visual concrete is now more diverse than ever before, " explains Thomas Kaczmarek, Managing Director of BetonMarketing Deutschland. By adding pigments, for example, it´s possible to achieve a wide range of color hues, and the choice of cement, too, also has an effect on the final appearance: a white cement produces a very light surface, a Portland cement, a darker one. Subsequent processing of the finished concrete surface is another way to ring the changes in design: these include washing out the top-most fine layer of cement, sand-blasting and flaming, as well as manual and machine finishing of the surface through bush-hammering, tooling, boasting, or sanding and polishing. Another important theme in concrete is thermo-activation of the concrete core, including in the context of sustainable building. The thermal storage capacity of concrete makes its ideal for use in energy-efficient temperature control in buildings. For each of these areas, trade visitors to BAU 2013 will be able to review exhibits and product samples. Bricks/Roof building On facades, roofs and even in interiors, clay bricks and tiles have a big impact on the look of a building. Increasingly, the trend is towards custom designs: surfaces can be designed to resemble landscapes or even animal skins. The old technique of a ring kiln has even been rediscovered: traces of sinter and typical setting marks produce a very expressionist-like surface – each individual clay tile or brick looks different. Dark bricks fired in a ring kiln were used on the facade of the "Church by the Sea" in Horumersiel-Schilling, northern Germany, built to a design by Königs Architekten (2012). In brick walls, the trend is towards dark colors: the facade of the Domenikuszentrum in Munich (Meck Architekten), for example, is clad with dark-red clinker bricks produced in a peat-fired kiln. This building won the Fritz Höger Prize in 2011. In roofing tiles, too, dark colors – right through to black – are increasingly being selected. With backing bricks, however, it is always the function that takes priority: "More and more frequently, the products are filled with rockwool or perlite, to optimize thermal insulation and sound insulation, " explains Martin Roth, Managing Director of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Ziegelindustrie. In addition to many brick and tile products for roofs and walls, visitors to BAU 2013 will find extensive information on roof windows and openings, roofing materials, facade systems, solar technology and building materials for chimneys. Stone/Cast Stone/Outdoor Design The range of natural and cast stones available – and the applications for them – covers an enormous spectrum, from floorings and facades to solutions for garden and landscape design. In Koblenz recently, at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle, a national gardens exhibition attracted attention for its use of the region´s graywacke stone, featured on the promenades along the river banks. This stone is not only very robust, it is also frostproof, easy to clean and resistant to acid. Slate can be used in many different applications and for centuries it has been a popular material for roofs and facades. But in recent years it has been getting noticed for modern and symmetrical design. For outdoor applications sand-lime brick, in particular shell limestone, is fashionable, in grey and beige. Stone is even being used for movable louvers. In interiors, in particular in bathrooms and kitchens, the stone is sand-blasted and brushed to give it a leather look. The German stone association, Deutsche Naturwerksteinverband, is taking a larger joint stand at BAU 2013 than at the last show. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Construction News :: home page |