Got a spare $111 million lying around? Buy a nuclear power plant!

A business tycoon from the US has recently made history, he became the first ever individual to purchase a nuclear power station. Franklin J. Haney, whom has made his fortune through being an innovative property developer, acquired the Alabama based nuclear power station at an auction on November 14^th.

Mr.Haney, has built himself quite the reputation on the journey to attaining his fortune, he’s established a status for ‘innovative financing’ and ‘imaginative acquisitions’, of which the ‘imaginative’ and ‘innovative’ are certainly justified in his latest purchase. However, his initial investment of $111 million is just the start of his spending intentions for this project.

After attaining a number of interested parties from the beginning, the day of the auction only actually saw 2 interested parties battling it out. Jackson Holdings of Alabama LLC, were the competition faced and made a serious challenge of it, bidding up to but no higher than $110 million.

The 75-year-old has vowed to rejuvenate numerous communities in Tennessee and Alabama, pledging that the completion of the plant will create in excess of 4’000 jobs, whilst operating the plant will create 2’000 permanent and highly-paid jobs.

Along with the incomplete 2.6GW power station, which has for years been ransacked for spare parts, Haney will get 1,400 acres of property on the Guntersville Reservoir. To hold him to his promises regarding the site, the seller, state utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), stipulated that Haney must invest at least $25m on the property within five years of closing the deal, and he has two years to close the deal. It contains two partially built Babcock & Wilcox pressurised water reactors. When TVA halted construction in 1988, reactor 1 was approximately 90% compete, and reactor 2 was approximately 58% complete. But after years of removing assets from the units, and following subsequent inspections, the reactors were deemed 55% and 35% complete, respectively, in 2009.

As well as the power station and the land, Haney gets switchyards, office buildings, warehouses, cooling towers, water pumping stations and railroad spurs. “The Bellefonte Nuclear Station will help transform communities across the region – many of which have been hit hard by the forced closure of coal power plants over the last decade. This project will bring new life to the region by creating thousands of jobs while providing assured access to reliable, affordable, zero-emission energy.”

 

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HS2 railway gets the green light!

Despite considerable opposition to the idea, the British government has announced they will be going ahead with plans to build the highly anticipated High-speed 2 (HS2) railway in full. The line is estimated to cost the country somewhere in the region of £56 billion and will considerably reduce travel time between some of the country’s most economically integral cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield.
The country’s transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said “HS2 will be world’s high-techest, smartest, fastest railway. It will be a state-of-the art railway. This is faster than the Japanese bullet trains, and more state-of-the-art. This will be the fastest, most modern railway in the world.” Once the entire system is fully operational, the new trains will carry 300’000 people a day, tripling the number of available seats out of London Euston station.
Much of the rail-line is going to be situated in the north of the country, which could be an immediate response to the message delivered by the Brexit vote. A large proportion of the country whom voted to leave the European Union were based in the north of England, a part of the country which for many years felt they were being neglected by the government when it came to large-scale investments. Much of the motive behinds the vote was people felt the country was chucking needles amounts of money into the European Union, whereas it could have been better used in domestic developments.
Grayling has stated that HS2 is not just about making journey’s quicker but also to address the capacity issues being felt by train operators, where many of the countries commuters are forced to stand on their journey’s due to a lack of seats. “We all know our railway system is full. Too many people have to stand, and there are too many people sitting in traffic jams on roads behind endless rows of Lorries. “You can’t solve that problem unless you build something new, and by building something new, why would we build something old-fashioned?

The government has also vowed to allow as much of the project as economically possible to be contracted to British manufacturers, which Grayling describes as “overwhelmingly good news for British business and for British skills and for British manufacturing”.

 

Africa is becoming a renewable energies headquarters!

The West-African country of Senegal has recently begun the construction of a major solar farm in the sub-Saharan desert, it is a 20MW project located in Bokhol and is called ‘Senergy2’. The project is estimated to cost $28 million and is going to be developed by French renewable energy platform – Greenwish Partners, which dedicates much of its work to sub-Saharan projects. Senergy2 was also financially backed by the Senegalese state; with financial support from the UK and Norway through their joint investment vehicle Green Africa Power, according to local news
When completed and operating at full capacity, it’s predicted that 160’000 people will have access to clean power, a move that will drastically increase the countries chances of 20% renewables by 2017. “With no energy, there can be neither growth nor development. With the Bokhol facility, we are now able to take a new step and Senegal comes unreservedly into a new, clean energy period,” said President Macky Sall.

Senegal is eager to attain a position as one of the continent’s leading countries in renewable energy production, as well as positioning itself as the leader in West Africa; currently, South Africa and Morocco are the flagbearers for the continent.

 

Ta prochaine maison pourrait être un conteneur d’expédition

Les boîtes en acier sont en train de devenir les nouveaux blocs de construction urbaine avec une particulière attention à stimuler l’achat des maisons à bon marché.

Un connu architect american qui s’appelle Price et son éponyme entreprise de design ont utilisé des conteneurs d’expédition longs 12 mètres, comme des géants blocs de Lego, pour construire trois complexes d’appartements à Washington D.C., qui est une ville où habituellement le prix moyen pou un studio est de 2,250 $, selon apartmentlist.com, et dans le classement Washington se trouve seulement après Boston, San Francisco et New York.

Les conteneurs d’expédition ont 2 mètres de largeur et 12 mètres de longueur, et donc chacun peut former un espace habitable de 28 mètre carré. Ils sont liés ensemble et peuvent former un notable espace habitable horizontal ou vertical.

Price est fermement convaincu que c’est un’idée géniale parce qu’il s’agit des nouveaux blocs de construction du 21ème siècle.

Toutefois comme il s’agit d’une nouveauté, elles ont un inconvénient,c’est- à-dire qu’elles sont vu comme des maisons mobiles et donc on se pose la question s’il vaut la peine de financer cet projet. En effet les maisons mobiles ou bien les maisons préfabriquées, à cause de son nom, beaucoup de banques ne vont pas prêter une hypothèque pour la construction d’une maison mobile, à moins que les roues sont éliminées, la maison se situe sur un fondement et les installations et la plomberie sont liées. L’architect Day a dit: “S’on se attache pas à une fondation permanente, il est difficile d’obtenir une hypothèque”.

En outre, les maisons-conteneurs peuvent avoir un problème de financement, parce que comme Day a dit, ils avaient presenté leur projet en disant qu’on pouvait aussi le déconstruire après pour construire quelque chose plus grande. Mais comme il était facile de le démonter, le développeur ne l’a pas acheté.

Toutefois, même si le design a rapporté beaucoup des reconnaissances, les frais pour utiliser métallurgistes et soudeurs pour joindre les conteneurs et fabriquer portes et fenêtres et aussi la méconnaissance du design comparé aux coûts de charpenterie traditionnelle (115$ pour mètre carré), rendent une vente difficile au développeur.

Les maisons-conteneurs assourent une vie accessible, et ils sont construits assez rapidement. Un projet de maisons-conteneurs a été fait à Washington, dans le quartier d’Edgewood, et il a fallu seulement sept mois pour l’élaborer et pour le construire.

Main on a été soulevé quelques préoccupations sur la sécurité des maisons-conteneurs, parce que étant donné que les casiers maritimes ont des sols en bois qui sont souvent traités avec des pesticides pour prévenir l’infestation ainsi que des substances chimiques qui préviennent la corrosion de l’air salé.

L’architect Day a dit que pour cette raison le recyclage de conteneurs d’expédition doit être fait trè minutieusement.

Le ralentissement économique globale peut aussi aider à rendre plus disponibles les containeurs d’expédition. Price a noté que chaque année il y a environ 2 millions de conteneurs laissés ”au repos” dans les ports.

Enfin, les maisons-conteneurs ne sont pas toujours économiques. Tandis que un conteneur peut être acheté avec 3,000$, une maison entièrement équipée, de luxe peut coûter 75,000$ ou bien 100,000$, dépendant de ferrures, matériaux isolants, revêtements et équipements du paroi et du sol. La seule chose qu’on économise c’est du temps. En effet la structure d’un appartement à plusieurs étages peut être assemblé en quelques heures et construit seulement en quelques jours plutôt qu’en quelques mois.

L’architect Day c’est très optimiste à propos de ce projet, il affirme: “Il y a beaucoup de personnes qui sont interessées sur ce projet. Le public c’est très excité et je pense que la nouvelle génération a envie d’un projet comme ça”.

How drones are revolutionizing the construction industry

Drones have been one of the fastest growing phenomenon’s in the last few years, both in terms of private and commercial use. To be the expansion into context, back in 2012 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimated that by 2012, 30’000 drones will be operating in US airspace; at this current time (2016) around 2.5 million drones are operational in the United States, of which 500’000 are being used commercially. Unsurprisingly, the FAA has since revised their forecast and now predicts the country will have 7 million drones in the air by 2020.
Many believe drones are the next step in the process of the ‘industrial revolution’. Before the availability of the modern cranes and industrial equipment, we rely so heavily upon today, laborers would be forced to complete every single job on the construction site by hand. Jobs that today take months to complete would have in years gone by taken years, and in maybe 20 years time, the jobs we see today taking months could take weeks, thanks to the use of drones.
Assessing the earth for the foundations of construction is also something that a drone can be considerably more efficient for. Traditional land survey equipment gets the job done and provides accurate results, however, when the apt software is installed into a drone, it will also attain accurate result but it will complete the job in a time 85-percent quicker at a cost of 10 times cheaper than traditional methods.
Furthermore, the job a project manager is also made fundamentally easier through the assistance of drones. In years gone by builders manually assessed project dimensions, which would predominantly be unreliable, timely and costly.  By using drone data tools, the drone can automatically measure essential projects components, such as stockpile volumetric, whilst also sending instant feedback to the project manager who can begin analysis.
Drones are becoming increasingly common in day-to-day life but this is just for leisure, more importantly, drones are becoming more and more prevalent in a variety of industries but none more crucially than construction. Construction is an industry very much built on efficiency, in the sense of cost and time; hence the reason drones potentially have such a pivotal role to play, when the above reasons are taken into consideration.

You would be a brave person to bet against drones being a key player in the next industrial revolution.

Hotel developments to lead the way for growth in African tourism

A number of the world’s largest hotel chains are betting on Africa being their next big investment opportunity. Africa’s tourism sector is already on a momentous upwards slope and this is the obvious trend that has caught the attention of some of the world’s most renowned hotel names, such as, The Hilton, Fairmont and the Jumeirah group. Starwood, Marriot and the Four Seasons have also publically stated they intend on investing heavily across North, South and Central Africa in the five-years between now and 2021 that experts predict will be one of the largest periods of hotel growth in the continent’s history.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa is currently rising at an astronomical rate; last year, the global growth rate of FDI was 1%, whereas in Africa they experienced a 7% growth. Paul Frimpong, Investor Analyst at international business facilitation experts Naseba, said: “The enormous potential of the African continent cannot be emphasized enough. Africa is the fastest growing region for FDIs in the world. Aggregate household consumption will reach $1.4 trillion with collective GDP hitting $2.6 trillion in 2020 alone. These facts show that with the understanding of the growth momentum, combined with the right strategies, presents handsome rewards for current and prospective investors in the region.”

Not only does the hotel boom in Africa provide more opportunity for the tourism industry but it also presents an abundance of opportunity for the continents architects, interior designers, real estate developers, buyers and engineers working on not only hospitality, but retail, commercial and residential developments.

 

Panama – The unsung hero of International Trade

The Expanded Panama Canal is a Success

The expanded Panama Canal has proved to date, to be nothing but a success. August 15th,1914 saw the ‘SS Ancon’ pass through Panama Canal, a ship that would be the first of thousands in what is it to be a prosperous 102-year history.

 

Panama Canal is a 48-mile waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean; it’s often referred to as one of the greatest feats of engineering ever seen. ThePanama Canal is absolutely indispensable to the efficiency of global trade. To put the canals importance into perspective, pre-Panama Canal saw ships from New York to San Francisco having to travel down to the tip of South America and back up again, even though they sit on the same latitudinal lines. The Panama Canal saves a route from New York to San Francisco a staggering 7’782 miles.

 

However, up until June 26th, 2016, the canal had seen little expansion, meaning as international trade continued to grow throughout history, the capacity of the canal stood still. The newly built lane has doubled the capacity of the Panama Canal by adding a new lane of traffic allowing for a larger number of ships, and increasing the width and depth of the lanes and locks allowing larger ships to pass. Ships over 1 and a half times the size are now passing through, which can carry twice as much cargo.

 

The Expansion project has seen:

• Built two new sets of locks, one each on the Atlantic and Pacific sides, and excavated new channels to the new locks.

• Widened and deepened existing channels.

• Raised the maximum operating water level of Gatun Lake.

 

It is estimated that the extension will have cost Panama In the region of $5.25 billion, a significant sum of money. However, it is also predicted that the canal will be financially profitable with the ACP anticipating a 12% internal rate of return. In addition to financial gain, it’s predicted that the canal will be beneficial to employment rates, with the 9 years of construction seeing between 35’000-40’000 people employed, and political bodies also believe the economic rewards of the extension will see more jobs created in a more prosperous economy.

MoMA’s “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980”

Today we are excited to bring you to New York into the famous Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This famous museum has been important in developing and collecting modernist art and is often considered as one of the most influential museum of modern art in the world. You can discover various collections about architecture & design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, etc.

The Museum of Modern Art – New York. Photo from blog.artsnapper.com

Wondering what’s happening right now in MoMA? From March 29 through July 19 2015, the museum documents a dynamic period in Latin American architecture between 1955 and 1980 – Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980. In 1955, MoMA staged Latin American Architecture since 1945 and now is the 60th anniversary of that important show!

“This period of self-questioning, exploration, and complex political shifts also saw the emergence of the notion of Latin America as a landscape of development, one in which all aspects of cultural life were colored in one way or another by this new attitude to what emerged as the “Third World.” The 1955 exhibition featured the result of a single photographic campaign, but Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980 brings together a wealth of original materials that have never before been brought together and, for the most part, are rarely exhibited even in their home countries.”
(Quated from MoMA)

As mentioned in a review from The New York Times, from Cuba to Chile, Mexico to Argentina, cities in the region boomed. The task of providing everybody with homes ultimately proved unmanageable: proliferating slums outpaced new construction; poverty rose. Even so, what got built through the 1970s in places like Havana and Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Lima included some of the most inspired architecture of the modern age.

The Bank of London and South America in Buenos Aires. Photo from Metropolis.

The National School of Plastic Arts in Havana. Photo from Metropolis

Plaza of the Three Powers in Brasilia. Photo from architectmagazine

Miguel Rodrigo Mazuré’s project for a hotel in Machu Picchu (1969). Photo from Metropolis

Torres del Parque Residencial Complex, Colombia. Photo from Metalocus.

The exhibition’s goal, said curator Barry Bergdoll, is to “reinsert Latin America into our history of modernism and modernization in architecture.”

The collection covers every aspect of Modernism – diagrid skycrapers, abstract landscapes, megastructures, cities of slabs and we can admire a broad range of works, including urban planning, innovations in housing (both individual and multi-unit), university design, and civic and public spaces. More than 500 original works are on display—many shown for the first time—and include drawings, models, archival films, and photographs.

Model of Headquarters for the Banco de Londres y América del Sur, Buenos Aires (1966) by Clorinda Testa and SEPRA Arquitectos. Photo from Archidose.

Model of Edificio Altolar, Caracas (1966) by Jimmy Alcock. Photo from Archidose.

Project for the first city in Antarctica (1980-83) by Amancio Williams. Photo from Archidose

As one of the leading manufacturer and supplier in the production of metal products, Shanghai Metal Corporation provides first class products and services in building materials. Check out our main products such as container houses, fasteners, steel grating, roofing materials and steel building.  Feel free to contact us for any question, our English-speaking staff will be more than glad to help you. Don’t forget to follow us on social media to get the latest update of our products and offers.

Sources : The New York Times, Archdaily, Architect Magazine, MoMA, Metalocus, Architectural Record

    

Ayu P.//SMC Editor

Why Containers work best as Apartments

Shipping container architecture has seen increased popularity over the years. This is largely due to the fact that containers are a much cheaper building system, as compared to conventional ways of building, and they are simple building inputs.

(image via http://www.containerhome.info)

Here are a few reasons why you need to build apartments with containers:

1. It takes far less time to transform a container into a living space! All it takes to have it from being the cargo carrier to being your comfortable home is, changing the floor, insulating the walls, and adding fixtures and windows. At SMC, we have specially made, pre-fabricated container houses which are fitted with plumbing, electricity and fixtures.

2. It takes less time to have the structure ready for people to live in, as opposed to building with bricks which are stacked one by one, a container is already a sturdy structure, thus, time taken to build from scratch is saved.

3. Containers used as apartments save a lot of land, as they can be easily stacked up to make an array of apartments. They are a perfect solution for housing in busy, overcrowded big cities and metropolis as they serve well to solve the problem of student housing and bachelor housing.

(image via http://www.tinyhouselover.com)

4.Container apartments help tenants to enjoy affordable rent! This is tangible reality can be seen here where container apartments were built up in London strategically for young people to be able to live comfortably and be can afford to pay rent. Since containers are a cheap input, hence the cheap rent!

5. Containers have high strength in their own structure, therefore it makes building with them very simple and more stronger buildings result. The high structural strength also enables homes to built in otherwise difficult-to-build areas such as wilderness homes and other adventurous types of homes.

So, why not reduce costs spent on building, while you save on construction time with container apartments? Visit our website to get more information about our container range, we are a leading manufacturer and supplier of containers in China.

Contact us for an inquiry or further assistance.  Stay clued up on our latest news and info by scanning the QR code below, or follow us on these social media:

    

Lebo Seopane//SMC Editor

Credits: Google images, SMC website,www.inhabitat.com

The New Building Trend : Green Building

Green building, also known as green construction or sustainable building is a building structure that is “environmentally responsible” and “resource-efficient”. It has the objective to reduce the negative effect of built environment on human health and the natural environment by :

• Efficiently using resources (energy, water, etc.)
• Protecting occupant’s health & improving the employee’s productivity
• Reducing environmental degradation (waste, pollution)

According to a study, green building construction is increasing across the globe as it is more and more viewed as a long-term business opportunity. More and more building owners and developers switch from new building design to a more green building. Green building is hitting the mainstream, therefore, to distinguish themselves, developers focus more and more on designing green building.

Graphic from World Green Building Trends

There are different factors that drive the construction of green building and they vary around the world. Australia, USA and European Countries are mostly influenced by business factors (market & client demand). Singapore, UAE and South Africa are more influenced by regulation (government’s policies) and ethical reasons.

Several green building certification has been established and may attract competitors.  One of the most notable are LEED and BREEAM. Below you can discover some buildings that has been awarded with a green building certification.

Taipei 101, Taiwan

This skycrapper is the tallest and largest building of LEED Platinum certification in the world since 2011.

Abad Nucleus Mall, India

This mall is India’s first LEED certified gold-rated green mall.

The University of Texas, USA

This is the first academic building in Texas to receive LEED Platinum certification.

Shearer’s Foods plant, USA

We have here the first food manufacturing plant to receive LEED Platinum status.

David L. Lawrence Convention Center, USA

This is the first convention center in the world to have received the Gold and Platinum LEED rating.

There exists thousand of other construction that has been awarded as green building and the number keeps increasing. We are getting more and more involved in fighting against environmental degradation. Shanghai Metal Corporation cares about the future and participate in reducing energy consumption. We offer solar panel that can be designed according to your projects and drawings. We also have eco-friendly material for buildings and we can help you with many types of construction projects. Please feel free to contact us if you need further information. Also follow us on social media to have a quick update of our products.

    

Credits to : wikipedia, World Green Building Trends, bdcnetwork
Photos : google image

Ayu P.//SMC editor