LECTURE-5

LEARNING LEVEL-1,2

USE OF MATERIALS
For construction as well as finishing of surfaces e.g. stone, wood,
metal, concrete, synthetic polymers and ceramics.

Maleeha Hassan
BUILDING MATERIALS
• The materials used for
construction purposes are called
building materials. These could
be divided into two basic
categories:
1. Natural materials.
2. Man-made materials.
 • Brush
• Ice and snow
NATURAL • Mud
• Sand
MATERIALS
• Wood
• Stone or rock
• Thatch
A bamboo house - Brush structure

A sea weed roof - Thatch structure

 • Fired bricks
• Clay blocks
• Cement
• Concrete
• Fabric
MAN-MADE • Foam
• Glass
MATERIALS
• Gyp Crete
• Metal
• Polymers/plastics
• Paper and membranes
• Ceramics
 Composite materials are materials
made from two or more
constituent materials with
significantly different properties
than those combined.
COMPOSITE • Composite building materials
such as cement and concrete.
MATERIALS
• Reinforced plastics such
as fiber-reinforced polymer.
• Metal Composites.
• Ceramic Composites.
 • Wood is a product of trees, and
sometimes other fibrous plants.
• Ready to use wooden planks are
usually termed as timber in
construction industry.
• Wood can be very flexible under
loads, keeping strength while
bending, and is incredibly strong
WOOD when compressed vertically.
• There are many differing
qualities to the different types of
wood, even among same tree
species. This means specific
species are better suited for
various uses than others.
And growing conditions are
important for deciding quality.
 • Materials change in size and
volume as the temperature
changes. They expand with
increasing of the temperature.
This means linear and volumetric
expansion. The expansion causes
decrease in the strength of
materials. But wood does not
practically expand against heat.
On the contrary, by the effect of
WOOD AS A BUILDING MATERIAL heat, it dries out and gains
strength.
• Thermal conductivity of wood is
very low which makes it a
preferable material for ceilings
and wall coverings. Wood
requires almost twice the
amount of heat energy than
stones and concrete to warm-up.
 • Carefully harmonized finishing of
exposed concrete, plywood cladding
and industrial screed.
• The treated plywood covering gives
this building a unique reflective look.
• Support structural material is
reinforced concrete, steel/aluminum.

Copenhagen students residence-Denmark

• Wood prevents echo and noise
by absorbing sound. For this
reason it is extensively used in
concert halls.
• A dried wood is a good electrical
insulator.
• The breaking length of the wood
when hung as a result of its own
weight is (19.8 km) greater than
the its steel counterparts (17.5
km). For this property, wood is
used in wide-gap constructions
like health centers, airports and
sport halls.
• Each wood type has its own
color, design and smell, and is
used for aesthetics accordingly.
• Maintenance and repair in case
of damage is less costly and easy.
 • It is one of the examples
of largest span wooden
roofed buildings.
Materials used are wood,
metal, glass and concrete
is used for finishing.
• The terminal building has
a light wooden, floating
roof that gives a simple
construction.
• The roof of the central
building has wooden
beams each of 90 m span
supported by solid
columns; the secondary
structure connecting the
beams consists of a
perforated metal grid
above a semi-transparent
false ceiling. The grid
allows natural light to
filter in from above while
also reflecting artificial
light from below the false
Oslo airport-Norway ceiling.
 • The pier (terminal-2) is the
main new design feature
at Oslo Airport. It is
constructed with curved
glulam beams, cladded
with oak.
• It is an extension of the
existing central part which
had wooden beamed roof
already.

• A pier is a type of airport

terminal design which
uses a narrow building
with aircrafts parked on
both sides.
• Glulam is the short form
used for glued and
laminated timber.

Oslo airport extension - terminal 2

• Common threats to the wooden
portions of a building are from
fungi, moisture, cracks, insects,
termites, carpenter ants,
carpenter bees and fire etc.
• Most of the commonly employed
strategies for protecting wood
involve selection of tested wood
type, drying, coating and
impregnation.
 • Stones suitable for constructing
retaining walls, abutments,
dams, barrages, roads etc are
known as building stones.
• Its properties are hardness,
durability, strength to resist the
crushing forces and fire/frost
resistance.
• Being a natural material, it
normally do not contain any
STONE toxic substance or chemical and
can be put to use in food areas
specifically. Also it requires much
less safety coatings of
preservatives which makes it a
sustainable material to use.
• used widely for wall skirting and
decorative claddings in interior
design and exterior finishes.
• Dry-stone walls with carefully
selected interlocking stones have
been built for as long as humans
have put one stone on top of
another. Eventually, different
forms of binding mortars  are
used to hold the stones together,
cement being the most
commonplace.
 • Stone veneers are used as
protective and decorative
covering for exterior or interior
vertical walls and surfaces. These
are typically 1 inch thick.
• Natural stone veneers are made
STONE VENEERS from real stone.
• Manufactured stone veneers are
decorative building materials
made from lightweight concrete
mix to replicate the look of
natural stone. These are much
lighter and less costly than the
natural stone veneers.
 • Stone veneers being used
on courtyard wall.
• Floor made up of wooden
veneers.

Chimney house-Brazil
 • The most widely used artificial
stone finishing materials are
ceramics, used widely for
decorative and protective
CERAMICS purposes.
• These are usually a combination
of clay with a variety of other
materials such as stone and
fiberglass etc.
• Ceramic tiles are used as wall coverings
and floors in wet spaces like kitchen and
baths to provide a quick and easy run-
off for water.
• These could be plain or hand-painted
and are also used in making furniture
tops and pottery.
Used inside water bodies for aesthetics and neat surface look
 • Concrete is a composite building
material made from the
combination of aggregate and a
binder such as cement, along
with water.
• It is the most widely used man-
made material in the modern
construction industry.
CONCRETE • It is durable and can be cast to
any desired shape. It makes a
building fire-safe due to its non-
combustible nature.
• Maintenance cost of concrete is
almost negligible.
• It is weak in tension therefore
often used with reinforcements.
• The manufacture and use of
concrete produce a wide range of
environmental consequences.
• A major component of concrete
is cement. The cement industry is
one of the three primary
producers of carbon dioxide, a
major greenhouse gas.
• The presence of some substances
in concrete, including useful and
unwanted additives, can cause
health concerns due to toxicity
and radioactivity.
• Have a high heat conduct and
must be used with thermal
insulators.
• Decorative concretes and mortars
are very effective finishing
materials.
• The decorative effect of these
materials results from the use of
colored cements and fillers
produced by crushing various
kinds of natural stones and by
texturing the front surfaces of
products (for example, large
blocks and panels) during
molding or after the concrete has
hardened.
• Decorative concretes and mortars
are used extensively in the
factory finishing of structural
members for fully prefabricated
buildings. Asbestos cement is
used for finishing the guardrails
of balconies and staircases
 • Prefabricated concrete
modular houses.
• 354 identical and
completely prefabricated
modules (referred to as
boxes) stacked in various
combinations and
connected by steel cables. 
• The prefabrication process
of the 90-ton boxes took
place on-site. The basic
modular shape was
molded in a reinforced
steel cage, which
measured 38 x 17 feet.
Once cured,
the concrete box was
transferred to an assembly
line for the insertion of
electrical and mechanical
systems, as well as
insulation and windows. A
crane lifted each unit to its
Habitat 67 Montreal-Canada designated position.
 • The strength and resilience of
metals has led to their frequent
use in high-rise building and
bridge construction, as well as
pipes, non-illuminated signs and
railroad tracks.
• Metal is used as structural
framework for larger buildings
METAL such as skyscrapers, or as an
external surface covering.
• Steel is a metal alloy whose
major component is iron, and is
the usual choice for metal
structural building materials. It is
strong in reinforcing, flexible and
if refined or  treated well lasts a
long time.
• Other metals used commonly
include chrome, gold, silver,
aluminum and titanium.
Titanium can be used for
structural purposes, but it is
much more expensive than steel.
Chrome, gold, and silver are
used as decoration, because
these materials are expensive
and lack structural qualities such
as tensile strength or hardness.
• Sheets and shaped products made
of copper and its alloys, stainless
steel, and titanium are used as
finishing materials; aluminum
alloys, including those with a
colored surface, are particularly
promising.
 • A combination of
interconnecting shapes of
stone, glass and titanium,
this building is regarded as
the jewel of the 20th
century.
• The exterior is entirely of
titanium cladding with
33,000 tiny titanium
sheets half mm thick,
being used over a metal
rods truss framework.
• Titanium is a transition
metal with silver color
originally and changes
color with changing
weather and light. It is
highly resistant to
corrosion in sea water.
• It is as strong as steel and
much lighter in weight.
Guggenheim museum Bilbao-Spain
 • There are two types of polymers:
synthetic and natural. Synthetic
polymers are derived from
petroleum oil, and made by
scientists and engineers.
• Examples of naturally occurring
polymers are silk, wool, DNA,
cellulose and proteins.
• Examples of synthetic polymers
SYNTHETIC POLYMERS include plastics, nylon,
polyethylene, polyester,
polystyrene, Teflon, and epoxy.
• Plastics are a promising type of
finishing material. They are
characterized by a broad range of
colors, a variety of product
shapes, excellent sanitary and
hygienic qualities, and good
corrosion resistance.
• However, their service life is
substantially shorter than, for
example, ceramic or glass
finishing materials; therefore,
they are used infrequently for
exterior facings (mainly for small
structures).
• The use of finishing materials
made of plastics (synthetic tiles)
for floor coverings is particularly
promising.
• Other common uses are
washable wall papers, railings,
and plinth finishing.
 • Synthetic polymers like foam
have been used in combination
with structural materials, such as
concrete. It is lightweight, easily
shaped, and an excellent
insulator. Foam is usually used as
FOAM
part of a structural insulated
panel, wherein the foam is
sandwiched between wood or
cement or insulating concrete
forms.
 • Wall papers are a combination
of polymers and paper, used for
decorative purposes and to hide
the surface flaws of walls.
• They are glued to walls using
wallpaper glue.
WALL PAPERS
• Wallpapers of various types are
widely used for interior finishing
(mainly in residences) they have
the advantages of low cost and
labor requirements.
 • Paint and varnish finishing
materials are intended mainly for
painting operations. Synthetic
paints and varnishes have become
widespread in modern
construction; they make possible
PAINTS
a substantial reduction in the
labor-intensiveness of finishing
operations and an improvement
in the protective and decorative
properties of structures.
• Thus to conclude from the above
examples, the main trend in the
development of the construction
and finishing-materials industry
is toward attaining strengths,
expansion in the variety of
materials, as well as toward
improvement of their quality
and an increase in the degree of
factory preparation of materials
and products.