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Professor Takafumi Noguchi The highest "Excellence Award in Concrete Construction", American Concrete Institute

 

On 16th December 2017, Professor Takafumi Noguchi, Department of Architecture, The highest "Excellence Award in Concrete Construction", American Concrete Institute.

The award is given to the most excellent construction among awarded construction in each category, i.e. low-rise buildings, mid-rise buildings, high-rise buildings, infrastructure, repair and restoration, and decorative concrete.
Candidate constructions, which are nominated by ACI local chapters or chosen by ACI's international partners, are substantially completed within 36 months and show visions of creative projects throughout the global concrete design and construction community.

 

 

 

<about awarded research>

Based on the requirements of the architect, unique and most advanced environmentally-friendly concrete was developed. The concrete contained Shirasu, a sediment of pyroclastic flow as fine aggregate and addition, which develops long-term durability due to pozzolanic reaction. B-type blast-furnace slag cement was adopted to contribute to establishment of low-carbon society. Crushed limestone was also used as coarse and fine aggregate to make concrete completely recyclable in the future and restrain drying shrinkage induced cracking. Also concrete had a self-compacting performance to spread over the narrow space without a defect, to reduce vibration and energy consumption, and to compensate lack of skilled-workers. The quality stabilization of Shirasu and the sufficient performance of concrete were confirmed through repeated discussions and experimental verification in the laboratory. Then the environmentally-friendly concrete using Shirasu was applied to construction of housing excellently designed.

 

<Comments>

It is quite an accolade for me, a researcher of building materials to receive the best award from ACI, the world's largest academic organization related to concrete, for a building deeply involved in material development. This award is a gift of things that the client, the architect, the structural designer, the constructor, the material producer, and the material researcher closely cooperated and developed together. The housing indicated the true form of the architecture.