Sustainable structures
Overview
Sustainability is the next challenge for engineers in the twenty-first century. Upon the design of structures, in addition to being safe, economic, and efficient, a new criterion, sustainability, must be met. Evidently also for the design of concrete structures, sustainability is getting more and more attention during the last years. In the cement and concrete industry, attempts are made to minimize the environmental impact by the use of alternative binders, recycled materials, etc.. Also through improvement of the design methods and construction techniques, enabling the realization of more slender and topological optimized structures, concrete construction could be made more sustainable. Since concrete is the most widely used building material, every effort to make the product and the construction technique more environmentally friendly yields a profit. The research teams of Prof. Nele De Belie, Prof. Stijn Matthys, and Prof. Kim Van Tittelboom propose different ways to decrease the environmental impact of concrete.