Steeling the show

Pappal Suneja

The use of iron and steel in construction is an important milestone in architecture. Steel buildings are a symbol of contemporary architecture. Carbon Steel since 1920 to date is the third most popular material used in buildings after concrete and timber. Steel as a building material is best known for its diversity in modulation and the architectural expressiveness which makes it more reliable than any other building material. The major applications of steel are façade treatment, erecting bridges, roofing, entrance gateways, fenestrations, interior ceilings, railings, staircases, cladding, furniture and other aesthetic embellishments.

Strength & durability

Steel structure has high strength and ductility hence steel member can resist high load. The steel members are gas and watertight because of high-density steel with a choice of coatings. Steel adds extra  strength to a building. Thus, it is used in exterior facade designs using louver, and galvanised and painted steel is used for corrosion protection and to ensure a long life of the buildings.

Design flexibility

Steel offers design flexibility. Steel structures are easy to install and can be used in different types. Steel members can be readily replaced or re-assembled. Steel is also cost-effective and rarely fluctuates in price. It allows improved quality of construction, durability, less maintenance, and lower life cycle cost, while offering improved safety and resistance. Steel buildings save time and money as compared to the conventional building systems. Further, it can be used for large spaces and beams with thin floor systems to allow appreciable gains in vertical space. Using steel columns in comparison of the concrete ones could help to deliver around 40 square meters of additional floor area space on an area of 1,000 sq m. The use of long-span sections for buildings creates large, open and flexible spaces. The cost of structural steel is approximately Rs 50/kg.

Structural application

It is very common to see buildings with structural steel in USA and Europe but the trend is yet to catch up in India. Structural steel is very selectively used in our country in the construction of tall buildings with a bare minimum of 2-4 projects being constructed per year and that too in metros. In the construction process, we employ steel in reinforced concrete but the whole structure is not prepared with structural steel in which all the components like columns, beams, floor plates, and staircases are made up of steel. Building with steel is at a nascent  stage in India today.

— The writer is an architect based in Ooty

Energy efficient and functional

The Volvo-Eicher' headquarters Gurgaon, NCR, designed by architect Romi Khosla, is the winner of the World Architecture Award. A state-of-the-art building with long spans, open plan commercial office space, this steel building uses least amount of energy and resources in its day-to-day functioning. The building uses a large proportion of re-used material and an extremely high percentage of easily renewable materials. It is defined by a unique span-free steel structure which is set outside of the main building envelope and designed on the principle of a stabilised cube which is diagonal.