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Case Study: Asia
Pakistan
When Lahore-based architects Omar Hassan & Associates needed to build a school
in double-quick time and within budget, they knew where to turn. Lower costs than is
possible with traditional building techniques have resulted in the Hydraform Building
System frequently being used for social housing projects.
How to build a school in
30 Days
T
he call went out to Eco Enterprises Ltd, an Islamabad-
based construction specialist firm that has built a
business out of making environmentally sustainable and
economically affordable building blocks in Pakistan.
Eco Blocks are produced by means of putting a
specific mix of sand, clay and cement through a
Hydraform block-making machine. Furthermore, since
the blocks created by the Hydraform Building System are
interlocking, the requirement for binding mortar between
blocks is virtually eliminated, satisfying the most important
criterion desired by Omar Hassan & Associates for the
Beacon House school project: speedy construction.
To give a sense of the scale of the challenge, the
new building for the Beacon House private secondary
school in Lahore is a double story over an area of 15 000
square feet. Construction phase of the project had to
be completed in 30 days or the internal fit-out could
not otherwise commence and the school could not be
completed on time.
However, thanks to the savings in construction materials
made possible by Eco Blocks’ dry construction technique,
the building was completed on time and within budget.
And as specialised bricklayers were not required, a wider
and larger worker pool was used on the job – a team of
three can build 800 square feet in a single 8-hour shift.
With several shifts and teams on site, the internal and
external wall construction took just 18 days – up to 80%
quicker than using conventional methods. Part of the
reason of this is that, unlike when using standard red clay
bricks and cement blocks, a construction project using
Eco Blocks does not require reinforced columns for a
double-storey building.
In addition, Eco Blocks are among the strongest in
Pakistan and have been rated at 10+ MPa (or 1700 Psi
with a lateral strength of 70 Psi).
These robust, durable and resilient blocks are also:
•
bullet-proof even at armour-piercing level
•
earthquake-resistant up to 7 on the Richter scale
•
lower water-absorption (12% versus 20% for
red clay bricks)
•
self-insulated (three times better than cement
blocks and twice as good as bricks)
•
windproof up to 140 km/hour
•
soundproof because they are not hollow
•
blastproof with increased cement content