Latest Tech in the Game
Moving the Future Forward
By: Joham Lim
The Malaysian property market has always been a traditional brick-and-mortar industry. It is old, stubborn and slow to move. Even as a developing nation, we have lagged behind in terms of innovation and advancement in technology in relation to other first-world countries.
There are voices of concern spreading through the Malaysian architecture and construction communities about our rate of progress. Or more specifically, the lack thereof.
It is currently 2019, and yet we are still talking about adopting the IBS (Integrated Building System) or prefabrication system, technologies that have been pushed forward by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government since the 1960s.
Why move into Industry 4.0 when we haven’t even fully capitalised on the benefits of the third industrial revolution yet?
Cheap foreign labour has made us lax in terms of research and development. It is comforting to use tools that we are all too familiar with. Switching to an entirely new construction workflow does take time, effort and deep pockets.
Like all new innovative technology, the market needs time to understand, consider and adopt these new measures. The lack of exposure or understanding of new technologies has always been one of the primary concerns for many technologically advanced companies, all desperately trying to bring in innovative solutions to age-old problems in the marketplace.
Here are a few of the technologies that we are currently missing out on which may potentially revolutionise the way we build, design and even think about homes.
BRICK LAYING ROBOTS
Robots taking over human jobs is not a matter of “if” but “when”. A robot mason named SAM 100 (Semi-Automated Mason) is able to place between 300 and 400 bricks an hour compared to a human who can only lay around 60 to 75 bricks an hour. Coupled with the fact that robots do not need to eat or sleep, commit fewer errors, and are cheaper than labour costs, the outlook doesn’t seem bright for bricklayers.
Now imagine that technology on wheels with the entire brick feeding and placement system streamlined into a single machine; you will have just described Hadrian X. Hadrian X, the latest offering by Australian construction tech firm FBR Ltd, reportedly completed a three-bedroom home in less than three hours, a rate hard to match for traditional bricklayers.
Simon Amos, Director of Construction Technologies at FBR Ltd, shared at REHDA Youth’s recent Future Forward conference that the traditional brick-laying process is slow, arduous and unsafe for bricklayers. The industry has been using the same meticulous techniques for decades without change. This age-old practice is already prone to human errors.
Not convinced? Maybe the unconventional Malaysian landscape tends to favour concrete as the main building material for most residential projects. This solution might be too.
3D CONCRETE PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
Our one-year-old government has pledged to introduce affordable houses for the B40 and M40 groups, a noble and commendable step. From the government’s eyes and the general public’s perspective, it is a budgetary and logistical nightmare. While it is easy to build tall high-rise condominiums for the urban poor, that may not be the case for rural folks who always constantly need to find faster and cheaper ways to build landed properties in hard-to-access areas with poor road conditions.
Icon, a robotics construction company in Texas, unveiled its proprietary Vulcan printer last year, able to print a habitable 650 sq. ft. home at the price of RM39,000 and able to complete the entire building in a single day. Siam Cement Group (SCG), one of the largest and oldest cement building material companies in Thailand and Southeast Asia, has a vested interest in this technology as well. SCG has started to release a printable cement mortar material made from a combination of cement powder, recycled materials and natural fibres.
Early this year, the company’s research group leader Chalermwut Snguanyat commented during REHDA Youth’s Future Forward conference that precision is where printing truly excels. Printing allows for more intricate designs, giving architects a medium that is hard, easy and precise to shape down to the centimetre. Walls no longer need to be plain and boring but can be interesting, artistic and fun.
In May, researchers from Nanyang Technological University claimed to have produced the world’s first printed concrete bathroom. The robot took twelve hours to print the entire bathroom, twice as fast compared to the traditional casting method. Prefabricated bathrooms cost SGD 4,000 to make, but a printed one could cost around half as much. With speed, accuracy and cost efficiency, printing is a viable option for the local government to build affordable housing for people who desperately need it while costing them nothing but thinner wallets.
PLUS Malaysia Berhad reported spending almost RM1 billion alone to maintain highways. Implementing self-healing concrete could possibly put a dent in this overhead. Concrete, one of the oldest materials in architectural history, is still widely used today for good reasons. Concrete is extremely durable, hard and easy to use; however, it is susceptible to wear and tear and damages, often visible as cracks under heavy loads across long periods.
Self-healing concrete contains the usual candidates but also includes a mixture of special bacteria and capsules of calcium lactate. When cracks are formed, water from rain or regular exposure seeps into the cracks, activating the bacteria to consume the capsules and form calcite, filling the cracks. Plenty of studies on this subject have been commercialised by companies like Corbion and Basilisk. The technology is fairly new with various rapid advancements happening, but only time will tell. However, we hope to see it coming to our shores in the near future.
Sometimes being innovative does not necessarily have to be confined to product designs or inventions. Innovation has brought about co-working and co-living spaces and many different business models that never existed before just a few years back. However, one thing is to introduce the latest to the market; another is to actually adopt them. The industry needs to accept better, safer and cost-effective measures for the good of the community, the industry and the environment as well.
Hopefully, one day we will get to experience living in a humble abode made out of printed concrete.