Light weight construction system allowing disassembly and re-use of waster materials

Housing, the environment, and Modern Methods of Construction are challenges facing the construction industry. New forms of construction that reduce the environmental impact, improve quality and flexibility and simplify the supply chain are needed. The concept is an innovative, light-weight, easily fabricated and sustainable construction system for residential and refurbishment applications to meet these challenges. The lightweight comes from the combination of thin cold-formed steel with surplus plywood or oriented strand board (OSB) into a composite construction system fabricated using simple techniques. This combination out performs existing engineered timbe systems, reducing the weight of attic roofs by 25%. It provides the builder with greater flexibilty and control over the supply chain. The project will demonstrate the technical and practical feasability.

The concept was proven. A series of full scale prototype structures were built and tested. A final test beam was constructed by re-cycling the steel components from an earlier test and scrap plywood from the architectural workshop. During the subsequent structural tests it was stronger that the original prototype beam.