Cube: First carbon concrete building

The world is currently a guest in Saxony, more precisely at Fritz-Förster-Platz in Dresden. This is where the Cube is being built. A cube-like building made entirely of carbon concrete. Why this is so special and what comes after the model project, more about that now.

The initiative for the first carbon concrete house of its kind came from Prof. Manfred Curbach and Matthias Tietze from the TU Dresden. They wanted to finally realize it, their house made of a completely new building material, environmentally friendly and climate-friendly, and also much more efficient than is possible with classic concrete! In an interview, Prof. Curbach explained the advantages of the Cube in more detail. With carbon concrete, for example, it would be possible to construct even large surfaces without cracks. The stability of the buildings is also much better than with the classic construction method. Houses made of concrete last on average about 80 years, those made of carbon concrete about 200 years. Long-term studies on this are, of course, still lacking.

With Cube, safety is the top priority

Why there are not yet more houses of this type, not only in Saxony but worldwide, is a legitimate question. In Germany, this is due to the very strict building regulations and testing procedures for new materials. The time between development and approval can easily be 15 years or more. And that’s still fast. The reason is the strict safety regulations. The inspectors have to make sure that the buildings are really stable and not prone to cracking or anything like that. And so far, they don’t. With concrete, the smooth surface comes to an end after about eight meters of height. Now the first cracks appear, so-called settlement cracks. These are not bad and do not pose any danger to the stability of the building, but they are unsightly to look at and therefore highly annoying for builders. With carbon concrete, this is not supposed to happen. At least that is the theory.

Carbon concrete gives freedom of design

The implementation can be seen soon, right in the heart of Dresden. An exciting project start for researchers, also a real highlight for the students themselves. The construction team expects a lot of homework and research contributions on the topic in the near future. First, however, the Cube has to stand. Then it will look very promising with its curved shapes. By the way, this is not simply a design banality, but a demonstration of the many possibilities. Unlike conventional constructions, it is also possible to cast oval shapes. In this case, stone is not simply placed on top of stone, but the required shapes are cast. This gives the builders a huge creative variety and makes the buildings look much more organic than is the case with the usual construction method. The starting point is a box and two twist shells. These serve as the roof and wall structure, thus forming the basis of the building. The carbon concrete is poured into these.

The Cube foundation stone has been laid

The roofing ceremony has now been celebrated and construction is in full swing. The Cube is scheduled for completion in September of this year. It will then serve not only as a residential building, but also as a research station of a special kind. By then, it will not only have windows, doors and an attractive interior, but even a freshly planted garden area. If everything goes as planned, the Cube will soon become the new standard among builders. That would be desirable, because it saves enormous amounts of manufacturing material and is also much more environmentally conscious than previous buildings have been. All that is needed is for the construction workers to learn the new manufacturing techniques and then implement them accordingly. Then a long development journey would have been accomplished and a new everyday construction routine would have been achieved. At the same time, the construction time is also significantly less months than for normal houses. There seems to be truly no end to the advantages.

Image copyright: Bybbisch94

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