post-war building materials

The website and the accompanying book will assist a broad group of stakeholders, ranging from architectural and construction historians, restoration and renovation architects, to building administrators and owners, in recognizing and valorising typical post-war materials. This research will help them to link brand and product names with their fabrication, and understand their applications…

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lightweight concrete

Lightweight concrete is a collective term for different types of concrete which are all characterized by a low specific weight.
The reduced density is achieved by adding specific ingredients to the mixture or by means of special production techniques, resulting in a weight decrease from 2.000 or 2.500 kg/m³ for ‘ordinary’ concrete to approx. 500 to 900 kg/m³ for lightweight concrete…

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thermal and acoustical insulation

In 1945, in the very first volume of La Maison, two companies promoted the use of insulation materials they manufactured: Isoverbel and Etablissements Ernest Lenders. Remarkably, at this early date, Isoverbel and Etablissements Ernest Lenders sold products for heat insulation as well as for sound insulation…

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glass and glazing

The production of window glass in Belgium started in 1836 in a factory in the valley of the Sambre…

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prefab floor systems

Floors and floor slabs in post-war housing were commonly constructed with wood, concrete, and/or ceramics…

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window frames

In the post-war period, window frames changed mainly in two respects, namely, the material of which they were made and the functional design of the sections…

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cladding and sandwich panels

Although decorative boards and cladding panels were already used before the Second World War, it was not until after 1945 that their manufacture became a booming industry…

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precast concrete façade panels

Precast concrete was introduced in a wide variety of applications in the facades of house buildings in the post-war period, for example, as small panels attached to loadbearing structural frames, as large loadbearing wall panels, as parapets of balconies, as insulated sandwich panels used in exterior cladding, and as claustra in decorative open screens…

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heavy prefab systems

The term ‘heavy prefab’ or ‘heavy prefabrication system’ denotes industrialized building systems that involved large, prefabricated loadbearing floor and wall panels in reinforced concrete, which were mass-produced in a complete and closed concept…

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