Published on: 03/19/2022 – 08:54Amended: 03/19/2022 – 08:52

It overlooks Laongo, a rural community not far from Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, and is the kind of groundbreaking design that helped Kere win architecture’s most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize, this week.

In doing so, the 56-year-old, who holds dual Burkinabe and German nationality, became the first African to win the honor in over 40 years of history.

Built on 20 hectares (nearly 50 acres) of granite plateau, the Opera Village is spiral-shaped, with 26 buildings housing workshops, a health center, guest houses and a school.

Eventually, in its center, a performance hall and a covered exhibition space with 700 seats.

Built in the early 2010s with the aim of combining art, education and ecology, the project was conceived by the late German director and filmmaker Christoph Schlingensief.

“The simplest material”

Kere was hailed Tuesday by Pritzker sponsors for his designs “sustainable for the earth and its people – in lands of extreme scarcity.”

His Opera Village used local building materials, such as clay, laterite, granite and wood to enable it to withstand the region’s extreme heat, said site administrator Motandi Ouoba.

“These are local materials that the architect found on site: blocks of compressed earth, bricks taken from the site, granite paving stones”, he specifies.

Kere “starts with the simplest material, which we commonly share…that our parents used, and he turns it into something noble,” he added.

“It’s the earth, it’s everything around us, when he brings them together he brings something beautiful to life.”

It also blends well with local vegetation, contributing to a sense of harmony.

‘Bioclimatic buildings’

Huge roofs tower over the walls, and ventilation keeps the temperature in the rooms down, even when it’s over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) outside.

Kere assured that “our buildings are bioclimatic, with a double ceiling and openings to dissipate hot air,” Ouoba said.

The health center’s consultation and treatment rooms have dozens of long, sliding-up windows.

“With so many openings, patients feel less isolated by hospitalization. They have a view of the landscape,” says Dr. Issa Ouedraogo.

Sleek classrooms bathed in daylight are a far cry from the makeshift decor of many schools in Burkina Faso, a country grappling with a jihadist insurgency since 2015 that has swept through neighboring Mali.

“The architecture of the buildings changes everything. We are in perfect classrooms because it is very hot here and not everyone can afford fans or air conditioning,” said director Abdoulaye Ouedraogo. , who is also an actor and playwright.

Six classrooms can accommodate 181 students – and there’s separate space for lessons in music, dance, drama, fine arts, photography and audiovisual.

“Durable and functional”

Opera Village also serves as a creative residency site for artists, according to Ouoba.

“It reminds us that we can get something beautiful, durable and functional from local materials,” he said.

With its unique architecture, the center attracts around 2,500 visitors each year.

Ouoba hopes that the international recognition of Francis Kere will help maintain the curiosity of visitors.

“We are happy for Mr. Kere but also for us who are among the first beneficiaries of his work,” he said, congratulating the architect.

© 2022 AFP

Arnold Pickett

February 5, 1932 –
February 24, 2022

Published on March 14, 2022

The Russian-Ukrainian war and accompanying inflation have driven up the cost of building materials, with the annual inflation rate in Egypt registering 10% for February 2022, from 4.9% a year earlier.

Al-Ahly Pharos Research expected construction material costs to increase by 15% in 2022, noting that previous research had pegged the increase at around 5%.

The center also predicted that developers will increase property sales prices by 10% in 2022 to account for increases in building material costs.

Pharos, however, expected sales to increase by around 10% in 2022, in addition to an increase in sales of move-in ready units, particularly in light of the mid-income mortgage program, which now covers units with prices up to EGP 2.5m.

He explained that expectations indicate that changes to installment schedules will not be made in 2022 by development companies, expecting average installment schedules to continue for eight years from 2022, and in the event of change, it will be minor, especially for ready units. .

Pharos also believes that 2022 will see a restructuring of the real estate sector, especially after legislation requiring property developers to pay around 30% of the value of the project before it is launched.

It anticipated that the pace of deliveries would increase to allow for more securitization transactions, with only receivables related to the units delivered being able to be securitized.

He pointed out that 2022 is the year of real estate market regulation, pointing out that there is an ongoing dialogue between major developers and the Ministry of Housing to seek the most effective and efficient way to regulate the sector. She explained that these transformations pave the way for a more regulated real estate financing market.

Aly Adel, real estate analyst at Beltone Securities, expected real estate unit prices to rise between 20 and 30 percent in the current year, especially after rising commodity prices around the world. due to developments in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Adel added that it is possible that the inflationary wave in house prices will last until the beginning of next year after increases expected to be between 10 and 20% during the current year in due to expected inflation.

He explained that most developers have building material inventory up to about six months, and increases will start at the beginning of the third quarter (3Q) of this year.

Daily News Egypt conducted a survey of the top 10 real estate companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) in terms of profitability, contract sales and revenue.

Emaar Misr tops the list with profits of EGP 4.12 billion, market value of EGP 11.87 billion and contract sales of EGP 23.2 billion. Talaat Mostafa Group ranked second with profits of EGP 1.78 billion. The group reached a value of EGP 17.97 billion and its contract sales amounted to EGP 32.4 billion; followed by Orascom Development Egypt in third place, earning EGP 1.12 billion in earned profit, while the group’s market value reached EGP 4.66 billion and contract sales reached EGP 9.2 billion. ‘EGP in the first nine months of 2021.

SODIC came in fourth place with EGP 865.1 million in profit earned, and its market value reached EGP 4.67 billion with contract sales of EGP 11.4 billion; followed by Palm Hills in fifth place, with a market value of EGP 4.55 billion, profit of EGP 653.3 million and contract sales of EGP 17.3 billion.

Nasr City’s profit fell by 72%, to rank sixth, its profit amounting to EGP 282.8 million with a market value of EGP 3.68 billion and contract sales of 2 EGP.95 billion.

Zahraa Al-Maadi Company ranked seventh as the company’s profits increased over the past year to EGP 274.8 million with a market value of EGP 3.03 billion and sales contracts of EGP 227 million; followed by Arab Developers Group – formerly Porto – in eighth place with a market value of EGP 476.3 million, profits of EGP 92.9 million and contract sales amounting to EGP 1.47 billion. EGP.

Amer Group ranked ninth with realized profit of EGP 83.2 million, market value of EGP 882.7 million and contract sales of EGP 4.9 billion; followed by Heliopolis Housing in tenth place with earned profits of EGP 16 million and a market value of EGP 6.52 billion.

© 2022 Daily News Egypt. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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The latest snapshot of the Salt Lake County apartment market might look attractive to real estate developers and investors, but for average renters, it could be more dire than ever.

Even with a record 12,367 new rental units under construction in the county and another 9,665 in the pipeline, vacant and available apartments remain at an all-time high — 2% or less — and rents are climbing 10% or more a year.

All of this speaks volumes about the demand for rental housing in Utah’s most populous county, even with a historic increase in supply, conditions for renters are not expected to ease until perhaps 2024 or at least. -of the.

Last year saw “the tightest rental market in our history,” said James Wood, a senior economist at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, which released new research Wednesday on the apartment boom. Yet even as builders jostle, the dramatic increase in the number of additional units this year is unlikely to slow the rise in rents.

Of the nearly 150,000 rentals currently in Salt Lake County, approximately 3,000 are currently vacant. That’s the lowest in 20 years, according to Gardner’s study, and includes everything from bachelors to three-bedroom units, which now fetch average rents of $1,301 a month.

One in three Utahans rents, and soaring prices for homes for sale leave them with little choice, Wood noted. With skyrocketing construction costs, rising interest rates and other economic trends, “we are worried about affordability.”

And with the county’s median home sale price now reaching $585,000 in Salt Lake County, Wood said, renters could be even more stuck. “I worry about the long-term future.”

Affordability “gets trampled”

Developer Dan Lofgren, with Cowboy Partners, said the long-standing axiom of spending no more than 30% of income on housing costs “is well in the rearview mirror”. Even lifestyle renters who choose to rent when they could buy, he said, are spending a greater share of what they earn on housing.

While a traditional supply and demand analysis suggests that building new apartments would eventually slow rising rents, Lofgren said, “the exact opposite is happening.”

“It’s a tough market to understand,” said the veteran apartment developer. “There’s all this new production; yet affordability continues to erode.

Several key trends appear to be driving the mismatch.

Soaring costs of building materials such as wood, steel and concrete currently make it difficult to build apartments at lower unit prices. This adds to a trend of building luxury apartments, especially in downtown Salt Lake City, where rents are 30-40% higher than in the suburbs.

“We build at the high end,” Lofgren said, “so affordability is what gets trampled on.”

Cowboy Partners recently opened the 21-story Liberty Sky, Salt Lake City’s first luxury residential skyscraper, with 272 units ranging from studios to two-bedroom apartments.

Its well-appointed homes and amenities — and those of several other luxury towers rising downtown — attract many foreigners drawn here for new jobs, said Mark Jensen, executive vice president of real estate firm Colliers International. .

“It’s what they expect,” Jensen said, “and the rents they’re encountering in Salt Lake seem affordable.”

More luxury

With occupancy virtually guaranteed for years to come, the majority of these new multi-story apartment complexes sprouting up on the Wasatch waterfront are also staples for investors, Jensen said. Immense volumes of capital continue to flow into multifamily real estate from out of state and overseas, as the state’s quality of life and job growth keep its economy going. booming.

A decade ago, the investment broker said, $500 million in investment sales in apartment complexes in Salt Lake County was considered a stunning one-year record.

“In 2021,” he said, “we made just under $2.3 billion.”

This, in turn, has a pronounced effect on existing, cheaper rental housing, which policy experts sometimes refer to as “natural” affordable housing. Between 2014 and early 2017, Jensen said, investors bought more than 40,200 rental units, renovated them and then rented them out with an average monthly rent of $264 per month.

It also pushes the current apartment building mix to the upscale, with rents generally out of reach for those earning the average Utah salary.

“We’re going to see a lot more high-end housing,” Jensen said.

Rising rents have forced thousands of residents to seek cheaper housing in the suburbs, often with longer commutes. For thousands more, it brought them one step closer to a financial precipice.

The burdens increase

In Salt Lake County, according to federal data, about 20% of renters spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2009. In 2018, that number rose to 41%, or nearly 60,000 renters,

Against these gigantic economic forces, government policies aimed at encouraging the construction of more affordable housing do not seem to make a huge difference. Of about 300,000 rental units statewide, according to Wood, about 50,000 offer some kind of rent subsidies, through tax credits.

Of those units currently under construction or on the drawing board, about 3,500 will be subsidized, a relatively high number in recent years.

Wood noted that while affecting most renters, Utah’s housing issues are greatest for those with lower incomes. He said he was encouraged that the Legislative Assembly recently approved its first major round of housing funding aimed at helping those earning 30% or less of the average median income.

“These people,” Wood said, “face a housing crisis every day.”

Hostess Brands Inc. on Monday confirmed plans to upgrade an unused factory in Arkadelphia, convert it into a bakery and create about 150 jobs over three years.

Company officials also said the plant is large enough for future expansions as the snack maker adds product lines. Hostess said it would spend between $120 million and $140 million to install.

The new bakery will increase the company’s capacity on its donette and cake platforms by around 20%. Officials said the 330,000 square foot facility will begin operations in the second half of 2023.

“We have profitably gained market share in the snack categories in which we compete,” Andy Callahan, president and CEO of Hostess Brands, said in a press release announcing the new plant. “The addition of this new bakery signals our confidence that we expect the growth we have demonstrated over the past few years

Governor Asa Hutchinson welcomed the news. “The Company’s selection of Clark County speaks volumes about the confidence it has in the area’s business climate and workforce, and I am confident that Hostess will find success in Arkansas,” he said in a press release.

The facility, located at 1 Scroll Drive, is the former Danfoss factory which the company closed in January 2020.

The hostess said the decision to renovate an existing building will reduce the company’s costs for the new bakery and minimize environmental impacts.

“We are emphasizing a sustainability-focused approach to this project while leveraging best practices from across our bakery network and anticipate this bakery to be our most efficient and greenest operation yet. day,” Callahan said in the press release.

Arkansas offers two economic development incentives to Hostess. The tax rebate program provides sales and use tax refunds on the purchase of taxable building materials and machinery. And the company will participate for five years in the start-up rebate program, which offers a financial incentive equal to 3.9% to 5% of annual payroll for new permanent full-time employees.

Chief Growth Officer Dan O’Leary said the company considered three key issues before deciding on Arkadelphia: the distribution network, an existing facility that could be converted, and a strong labor pool. . “We were also able to establish a strong partnership with state, county and local authorities,” he said Monday.

Last week, Arkadelphia’s expansion was revealed during a three-hour presentation that company officials gave to the investment community.

Hostess, based in Lenexa, Kan., has five North American bakery plants in Emporia, Kan.; Indianapolis.; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; and Ontario, Canada.

TURNERS FALLS – Students at Franklin County Technical School are hard at work clearing approximately 1.5 acres of land to make way for a new veterinary clinic and lab.

The building, which is expected to be completed in early 2023, will be a 4,800 square foot steel structure that will house a working veterinary clinic, a full line of lab equipment, a pet supply store and more. again. Superintendent Rick Martin and the veterinary science staff view the project as a much-needed upgrade for a program that is still in its infancy.

Instructors Regina Parsons and Kimberly Barry said the vet program, which was established in 2019, has grown significantly year on year. Martin explained that this was due to the addition of a class of students to the program each year, with the 2019 ninth graders being the inaugural class and each subsequent freshman class joining thereafter. The current study space, consisting of a small, more traditional classroom lined with high-tech equipment that looks out of place, adds to the need for accommodation.

“Because it’s so new,” Parsons said, “we don’t really have the frameworks to build on.”

Last week, the need for a new facility was all the more evident, staff agreed. On Tuesday, a goat gave birth unexpectedly and members of the veterinary program marveled when the animal successfully delivered on the classroom floor.

“It was a life lesson. It’s huge,” Barry said, noting that a state-of-the-art facility would give students greater flexibility to adapt to various situations.

Martin expressed his willingness to make a major investment of time and money in the veterinary program. In addition to securing $300,000 in equipment financing, $100,000 in lighting financing, and reducing the potential construction cost to $1 million for what could have been a $4 or $5 million project With the help of capital stabilization funds, Martin said he dove deep into research to maximize the facility’s potential.

“I probably spent a year going to every vet lab in the state that was in a school, saying, ‘I want this! I want this!'” Martin said, noting that Franklin Tech currently owns the most needed equipment.

Although the school currently has study space and an array of laboratory equipment, it has never had a functioning clinic that serves outside clients. In addition to granting students adaptability and technical abilities, Parsons said, the addition of an operational clinic will help students “dive in” as they engage in more real-world application of their skills.

“Students hate using the phone,” Barry said as an example. “Guess what? You have to use the phone.

Martin said he plans to discuss with an industry advisory board the capacity in which the Franklin Tech clinic should serve customers.

“We don’t want to compete with other established veterinary clinics,” Martin noted. “This is strictly an educational institution.”

Martin said he had already acquired the necessary building materials and engaged in preliminary design phases with an architect. No construction company has yet been contracted to carry out the construction process, but as is traditionally the case with the vocational school, their own students will be called upon to work.

“Our students will even help when we bring in a company,” he said.

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or [email protected].

An article, currently in pre-proof for publication in cleaner materialsstudied the use of plastic waste as a modifier in bituminous mixtures for flexible pavements.

Study: A mini-assessment on the use of plastic waste as an asphalt modifier for flexible pavement. Image Credit: tcharts/Shutterstock.com

Plastic waste is a growing problem due to population growth, rapid urbanization and industrial activities. The recovery of plastic waste is crucial to reducing the environmental damage caused by human activities, and one potential recovery route is to use plastic waste as a material in pavements.

Recovering plastic waste for commercial products

The growth of cities and world population has resulted in massive environmental damage. Products needed by society and industry are usually produced in a linear process, where they use virgin resources that are discarded at the end of their useful life, and in the process valuable materials are lost. Plastic production is incredibly damaging to the environment, causing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

Circular diagram of plastic waste locations. Image Credit: Noor, A & Rheman, MAU, Cleaner Materials

Valuing plastic waste to produce commercially viable products is a cornerstone of the circular economy concept and a key strategy to reduce environmental damage and achieve net-zero carbon emissions in line with international commitments such as the Paris Agreement.

The use of recovered plastic waste has been widely explored in sectors such as construction to reduce the need for raw, non-renewable building materials such as concrete. Not only does this reduce the number of virgin materials that are mined, it also reduces carbon emissions from manufacturing, and polymers can impart desirable mechanical and physicochemical properties to building materials.

Flexible pavements

With the rapid growth of urban areas and infrastructure, there is a need for road surfaces that can withstand repeated use. Many road surfaces are made up of multi-layer flexible pavements using different materials. These are the surface, base, subbase, and subsoil layers.

Pavement performance can be influenced by the thickness of each layer. For example, increasing the thickness of the bituminous layer reduces the compressive stress on the sub-base, which is the compacted soil used to support the entire pavement.

Flexible pavements can fail due to several factors including potholes, stripping, overweight vehicles, and fatigue cracks are some of those influential factors. Maintaining them requires a large number of resources and repair methods can be costly and time-consuming, leading to traffic disruptions and increased travel times.

The parameters that influence the thickness of each layer are the load that the pavement will have to support, the materials used in each layer and the conditions of the area in which the pavement will be built.

Many studies have been carried out over the years to investigate the optimum thickness of each layer and the materials to be used as bituminous additives for the surface layer of flexible pavements. The research aimed to improve the overall mechanical properties of flexible pavements, increase their lifespan and reduce the need for maintenance and unsustainable use of resources. Many materials have been explored as bituminous additives, including waste plastics, to improve the properties of the surface layers of flexible pavements.

Flexible pavement layers. Image Credit: Noor, A & Rheman, MAU, Cleaner Materials

A mini-review on the use of waste plastics as bituminous modifiers for flexible pavements

In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the recovery of waste as bituminous additives. Plastic waste is an interesting modifier because its use reduces the environmental impact of the plastics industry and imparts improved mechanical properties to flexible pavements. A mini-review of current perspectives and research has been done by Pakistani authors, currently in pre-evidence in cleaner materials.

The authors noted the challenges associated with the use of bitumen, the most commonly used binder material in the construction of flexible pavements, including carbon emissions, high temperature softening and gassing during heating, as well as the loss flexibility and increased brittleness at low temperatures. Studies have shown that polyethylene and polystyrene waste can improve the properties of bituminous materials and have good adhesion properties.

Wet process. Image Credit: Noor, A & Rheman, MAU, Cleaner Materials

Some researchers have used virgin plastics for modification purposes. The authors noted the use of plastic waste from tire production and recycling as modifiers in flexible pavements. Virgin and recycled plastics improve surface layer properties and performance. The use of plastic for this purpose is not new: the first use was reported in 1843. Recent research has been carried out to optimize modification parameters as well as to study economic and environmental aspects.

Processing techniques such as wet processing, dry processing, and modified processes have been explored in the mini-review. Among plastic wastes, PET bottles, recycled LDPE from greenhouses, waste PE, PVC and HDPE pipes and waste plastic bags have been extensively explored in the current literature for use as bituminous modifiers for flexible pavements. Using different waste plastics as modifiers improves different properties in various ways.

In conclusion, the authors asserted that plastic waste improves the chemical stability and mechanical strength of bituminous materials to create robust and durable flexible pavements. In addition, the use of plastic waste reduces both environmental impacts and manufacturing and maintenance costs. The recovery of plastic waste as bituminous modifiers in flexible pavements deserves to be widely implemented.

Further reading

Noor, A & Rheman, MAU (2022) A mini-assessment on the use of plastic waste as an asphalt modifier for flexible pavement [online] cleaner materials 2022 100059 | sciencedirect.com. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772397622000193

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are those of the author expressed privately and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork, the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the terms of use of this website.

CRH, the building materials giant which is one of Ireland’s largest companies, has decided to exit the Russian market, following the invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia.

“CRH management, together with its board of directors, made the decision this weekend to cease operations in Russia and withdraw from the market,” she said Wednesday evening, in response to questions. of the Irish Times on the future of his Russian business. operations.

CRH, which is also one of the largest cement producers in Ukraine, has a stake in six ready-mix concrete plants in Russia. They are located in the region of Saint Petersburg, the country’s second largest city after Moscow, through a joint venture owned by its Finnish unit, Rudus.

Rudus is co-owner of LujaBetomix, which is a joint venture that its subsidiary Betomix holds with another Finnish cement producer, Luyabeton.

According to LujaBetomix’s Russian website, the joint venture ultimately backed by CRH was created in 2014 specifically to target the Russian market. Rudus had been selling separately in the St. Petersburg market across the border from Finland since the late 1990s.

CRH is now insisting that it will end all business activities in the Russian market, suggesting that its Rudus unit and the joint venture will stop selling cement products in St. Petersburg.

CRH, which announced its annual results on Thursday, should face questions about its exit from the Russian market.

Last week, before the invasion, the HRC had prepared contingency plans for its Ukrainian operation, which is mainly located in the west of the country.

He said his Ukrainian operation, which employs around 800 people, is responsible for less than 1% of the group’s annual sales, which amount to nearly 27 billion euros. It is understood that the Russian operation is smaller than the Ukrainian operation.

The company said the safety of its staff in the region was “our number one priority”.

Indian researchers had thought of a unique method that tackles two of the biggest environmental problems: sand conservation and plastic reduction.

The team at Sona College of Technology, Salem, Tamil Nadu, have developed new technology that will both save the country’s second most used natural resource – sand – and help reduce the landfills created by plastic bottle waste, like hitting birds with a rock according to The Weather Channel.

To do this, “the invention of green technology” will replace up to 70% of the sand in the concrete with shredded plastic used in the construction of their infrastructure.

“Our invention successfully uses recycled plastic waste to partially replace fine aggregates or natural sand in the manufacture of paving stones and precast bricks,” said lead inventor Dr. R Malathy, also Dean (R&D) and Professor in the civil engineering department.

The technology has just been patented by the Indian Patent Office.

Turning plastic waste into usable building materials

Sand is an essential ingredient of our lives and the main raw material from which modern cities are made, which is why the most important but least appreciated product of the 21st century has sparked a “wave of violence” in the world. world, wrote the BBC.

“Believe it or not, the world is facing a shortage of sand,” the website says. “How can we run out of a substance that is found in virtually every country in the world and seems essentially limitless?”

In India, almost 70 million tonnes of sand are consumed every year to meet the country’s infrastructure needs, and this consumption is increasing by 7% annually, India Today reported. “At the same time, more than 5 million tonnes of plastic are consumed each year, of which only around a quarter is recycled and the rest ends up in landfills,” the website says.

As a basic element of construction, sand is indeed essential in all parts of the world, and in fact the planet is covered with it. However, the extraction of billions of tons of sand per year has aggravating impacts on the planet and therefore on people’s lives.

Also Read: Deepwater Horizon Disaster Spill Endangers Dolphins

Tackling the two global environmental problems

The team of inventors from Sona College have developed a technology that converts recycled plastic waste into a usable building material to partially replace the traditional concrete ingredient.

“This groundbreaking invention will hopefully help control the depletion of the global stockpile of sand and limit plastic waste,” said Chocko Valliappa, vice president of the Sona Group of Education Institutions. The researchers, including Dr. R Malathy, Dr. SRR Senthil Kumar, N Karuppasamy and K Dhinesh Babu, were granted the patent “Effect of Recycled Plastic Waste as Partial Replacement of Fine Aggregates in the Manufacture of Paving Stones” in 2019. The team won the patent final in early 2022.

Waste bottles (polyethylene terephthalate) collected in Salem were ground to a size below 4.75 mm in large machines. Engineers succeeded in replacing 70% of the natural sand while equaling the resistance of the tri-arch pavers according to the IS 15658-2006 code.

“By using plastic waste and dramatically reducing the use of natural sand, our patented technology offers significant environmental and cost benefits,” said Dr. SRR Senthil Kumar, Principal of Sona College of Technology.

Also Read: Regions Previously Untouched by Fires Face Extreme Risks by End of Century