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The efficiency of steel can, therefore, bring new and renovated constructions up to higher standards and improve economic, social, and environmental performances. Steel has all of the attributes required by the 21st century construction sector, and its inherent adaptability makes it an attractive option for an unpredictable and rapidly changing future.
At Arcelor Mittal, we are proud to serve a full range of customers, including manufacturers and contractors, who develop systems and methods for using our products and solutions to facilitate reduced impact designs.
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Education wrapped in steel
17 May 2022Education escorts us throughout our entire lives – as do the buildings in which we acquire our knowledge and skills. We recollect their architecture, interior design, pieces of furniture, and even their smells. Some have impressed us more than others, but none of them have left us indifferent. In our memories, these buildings are profoundly connected to our experiences and emotions, including the people we connected with there.Over the last few decades, education has evolved and so have the requirements for educational buildings. Architectural design has significantly increased in importance, technology has conquered interior design, and user comfort is a key concern, all of which are important factors accompanying the learning experience. Architecturally attractive buildings not only express the prestige and status of institutions but contribute to a sense of wellbeing for their users.
Project newsMeet SiCA: Steel in Construction Academy!
26 April 2022We are proud to introduce you to our newest Constructalia feature: SiCA – Steel in Construction Academy. SiCA is a self-learning online platform for those in, or joining, the construction industry focussed on the use of steel as the material of choice for construction applications and required performances.
Website newsNew European Design Guide for the Use of Weathering Steel in Bridge Construction
30 September 2021The European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) has released a new European Design Guide for the Use of Weathering Steel in Bridge Construction.
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Education wrapped in steel
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Constructalia
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Education escorts us throughout our entire lives – as do the buildings in which we acquire our knowledge and skills. We recollect their architecture, interior design, pieces of furniture, and even their smells. Some have impressed us more than others, but none of them have left us indifferent. In our memories, these buildings are profoundly connected to our experiences and emotions, including the people we connected with there.
Over the last few decades, education has evolved and so have the requirements for educational buildings. Architectural design has significantly increased in importance, technology has conquered interior design, and user comfort is a key concern, all of which are important factors accompanying the learning experience. Architecturally attractive buildings not only express the prestige and status of institutions but contribute to a sense of wellbeing for their users.
We invite you to explore a sampling of our Constructalia case studies about educational buildings in which steel plays an important role. Be it in their structural systems, facades, or roofing, find out how steel contributes to the aesthetics, functionality, and safety of these buildings whilst keeping cost and sustainability concerns in mind.
Experimental construction at the service of science
Seemingly floating over the ground with its gentle slopes and internal patios, the educational experience at the Rolex Learning Center on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland must be one of a kind. Who wouldn't like to discover its innovative learning labs, libraries, and student mingling spaces? While we cannot take you there, our case study can offer you a glimpse.
It takes a village…
At Vista College, formerly known as Arcus College, hundreds of students receive vocational education at different levels, preparing them for the ever-changing professional world. At its campus in Herleen in the Netherlands, six steel-clad, organic shaped buildings are connected on their ground floors below street level and arranged around two patios, resulting in an environment that encourages openness, flexibility, and exchange.
Ecological intelligence transformed into a building
Stoas Vilentum University of Applied Science, now called Aeres Hogeschool, focusses on research and teaching in the fields of agriculture and ecology. With a durable steel facade, its university building in Wageningen in the Netherlands was also featured as Constructalia case study a few years back. Learn about its 'ecologically intelligent' design that was conceived in close cooperation with its future users.
An all-in-one primary education project
Wouldn’t you like to acquire skills and knowledge at a school that combines education, handicrafts, and leisure activities? Read how this is achieved at Pôle Molière in Le Havre, France where former stables now function as a part of a modern multipurpose school project, partly clad with weathering steel.
Secondary education with a sustainability focus
Find out more about Gallieni High School and its workshops in Toulouse, France that offer a fine example of steel architecture, in an industrial philosophy, designed in accordance with an environmental approach. In this project, like in many others, steel allows for a high degree of prefabrication, offers wide spans for flexible spaces, and optimises user comfort while saving materials and cost.
Just plane lightness
A more specific form of education takes place at Air Vergiate Flying School in Sesto Calende on Lake Maggiore in Italy where, thanks to their lightness, beams with large web openings brought life back to a sacred place of Italian civil aviation. See where future pilots learn to fly planes in this renovation project case study.
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Constructalia
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© EPFL | Alain Herzog
© Dirk Verwoerd for ArcelorMittal
© Little Planet
© ACAUM - Atelier BETTINGER DESPLANQUES Architectes associés & Paul Kozlowski
© ArcelorMittal
© Andrea Raffin for ArcelorMittal
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Meet SiCA: Steel in Construction Academy!
We are proud to introduce you to our newest Constructalia feature: SiCA – Steel in Construction Academy. SiCA is a self-learning online platform for those in, or joining, the construction industry focussed on the use of steel as the material of choice for construction applications and required performances.
The story of SiCA
Just before the start of the new millennium, over 200 European steel and steel construction specialists (including ArcelorMittal) sat down together to create ESDEP, the European Steel Design Education Programme, to further the development of steel in construction.
We have taken this valuable content and revised, updated, and enriched it to meet the standards and requirements of 2022 and beyond. Don’t worry, we didn’t forget to comply with the most recent versions of the Eurocodes. The history of steel, construction physics, design, applications, and the properties of steel are just a sprinkling of the topics on offer.
This is just the beginning
Topics such as sustainable construction with steel, energy efficiency, or the circular economy were not of great importance all those years ago when this content was first created. Not only have we updated the content to meet the needs of these now very important topics, but such themes will be the subject of upcoming lectures.
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Constructalia
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Constructalia
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Steel in construction
The modern high-performance construction sector is under increasing pressure to reduce waste and increase recycling by choosing the best products and technologies currently available. With steel products and technologies being inherently low waste through all stages of their life cycle, steel has its ever-increasing significance in today’s construction sector, driven by market demand for sustainable materials and procedures of the 21st century.
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Mainly, but not limited to, the major environmental benefits of steel include:
- 100% recyclability
- Minimum on-site waste due to high quality shop prefabrication
- Life cycle energy savings due to insulation and air tightness of the envelope
- A long-lasting structure that reduces the need for future building resources (zero depletion of iron resources)
A similar review of progress made in steel buildings demonstrated that:
- Steel construction is efficient, competitive, and makes a significant contribution to society.
- Construction can be quickly assembled using high-quality, nearly defect-free steel components that are efficiently manufactured off-site.
- Steel framing and envelope systems allow, together with other materials, for building design with low overall environmental impacts.
- Steel-based construction systems provide flexible spaces that have the potential to be easily modified and adapted so that the building’s life can be extended by accommodating changes in use, layout, and size.
- At the end of a building's life, steel components can be dismantled, reused, or recycled without degradation of properties.