MAY 2024
Just recently, BCGD appointed Ms. Yumi Guinigundo, was chosen as one of the preferred suppliers for concrete blocks for the BCGD Philippine Projects. Yumi, who is 72 years old is also a widow. Through the help of her friend, BCGD Senior Design Consultant, Architect Urcia, Yumi was able to start the manufacturing of a small-scale patented Concrete Block Manufacturing Technology.
THE PRECAST COMPOSITE CONCRETE BLOCK: Patent Title: PRECAST COMPOSITE CONCRETE BLOCK PANEL WITH ASSEMBLY OF RECYCLED CYLINDRICAL CARDBOARD ROLL IN-FILLS (as Toilet roll core) intended for walls, flooring, and roofing. It can also be used as a retaining wall, fence, and many more. The block comes at a standard size of 1m x 5m x 0.15m and can be customized up to 4m x 8m by 0.2m.
Precast concrete structures provide superior resistance to fires, natural disasters insects and mold. Like no other building materials, its resistance to rain, wind damage, earthquakes, termites and decay provides low maintenance and insurance costs
Precast concrete grows stronger overtime. While other materials deteriorate, studies have shown that precast concrete can provide a service life of more than 100 years, required little or no maintenance.
Precast concrete is truly sustainable green product, is also highly durable and uses an extremely low water ratio. All of these sustainable benefits result in precast concrete products being chosen as priority materials in LEED – certified building.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third- party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most energy savings, water.
COMPARISON
Basic Conventional Concrete Hollow Block CHB | PRECAST BLOCK UPB |
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Urban and rural poor living in unregulated housing in disaster prone settlement as well as lower middle-income households that can benefit from an affordable but high performing building material.
The product is currently in small-scale production with plans to enter into the larger housing market and scaling up production.
INITIATIVE TO SUSTAINABLE HOUSING
The Precast Block is a composite that is resilient to earthquakes, typhoons, and flooding. Compared to concrete hollow block, it uses less concrete while providing equal if not better performance. The sandwiched panels in each precast block contains a cavity which promotes insulation from the cold, heat, and sound. This cavity also utilizes a recyclable cardboard core that increases the rigidity of the block and forms a mold when two (or more) blocks are joined together for mortar to set in.
The precast nature of the product also ensures consistent quality while minimizing wastage. The sandwiched panels in each Urcia precast block creates a cavity which promotes insulation from the cold, heat, and sound.
Its manufacturing facilities do not need to rely on fossil fuels to produce the block and can instead utilize renewable electrical energy harvested from solar and wind systems. Rainwater harvesting can also be prepositioned in to the design of the facility to reduce consumption from main utilities. The mobile nature of satellite production facilities allows for closer logistics and a lesser carbon footprint.
Additionally, local employment among the pool of target users can be integrated as part of the manufacturing process to help further reduce costs and contribute to community livelihood.
Livelihood for Women in the preparation of the blocks
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