Chapter 1 Analysis of accident statistic in construction industry.

The construction industry undoubtedly plays a important role in the development process of a country contributing towards social and economic growth. A successful development leads the country to global and being  recognize as a well known country where the social and economic growth is beyond a non-develop country. Everything has its pros and cons, therefore, such huge achievements have also contribute more problems towards the safety issues in the construction industry. Statistics have proven that construction industry has crowned the reputation of being one of the highly hazardous industry due to its high fatality rates compare to other industry.

Figure 1. Number of fatal work injuries at United States, by industry sector, 2012.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics that have been carry out by Department of Labor in United States, approximately 4,383 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2012. Although the rate of fatal work injuries has drop from a revised count of 4.693 in 2011, the number of fatal work injuries in construction industry remains the most worrying and dangerous sector in the United States among the industry sectors.

Figure 2. Local occupational accidents statistics by industry until August 2013.

According to Department of Occupational Safety and Health(DOSH), although construction industry is not the highest rate of accidents, however the death that happened in construction industry is rank at second with the number of 36 death. Nonetheless, 9 victims were found out with the permanent disability due to the accidents caused in construction industry.

Figure 3. SOCSO annual report reported local construction accident cases from 1993 to 2003.

Social Security Organization(SOSCO) has been record the annual construction accident cases. The cases of accident occur at the construction site is surprisingly high every year. Although the number of accident cases decrease from year 1996 to 1997, however, during year 1998, the number of accident cases at construction site has been increase and it seems like the number has been remain at the same level for 4 years.

Figure 4. SOCSO annual report reported construction fatalities at local.

According to record done by SOSCO, although the construction industry is not the highest contributing industry towards the accident statistics in Malaysia, however, the figure of construction fatalities during year 2000 is very high rate. With such unpredictable figures collected by SOSCO in construction industry, both the governmental and non-governmental organization have keep their attention and concerns towards this issue.

According to the Public Investment Bank report, an average of 10 fatalities at construction sites has occurred at Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya in the past two years. However, the figures were cut half from year 2010 (refer Figure 5), where 20 deaths were recorded that year.  Although this may seem as a positive news that the construction industry has tighten the health and safety rules and regulation where it brings the result to minimize the possible danger that the construction workers may face, there is still will be a tragedy that cause by uncontrollable forces such as human error.

Figure 5. Fatal accidents in construction at Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Figure 6. Causes of fatal accidents at Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya in year 2012.

Figure 6 shows that out of the 10 fatal accidents in construction at Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, 4 accidents were fall from height and 2 accidents were struck by objects while 1 accident each for the accident such as struck by falling objects, caught in between object, overexertion and others.

Figure 7. Statistics for construction industry by accident type, 2006-2008.

Unfortunately, falls is the most happen accident during the construction industry with the ratio of quarter of the chart, followed by overexertion and struck by objects. The carelessness of worker is the major cause of these accidents. Falls from high rise building is deadly while 23% of the construction industry accident is overexertion because construction work can be burdensome to both physical and mental energy.

Introduction

The intelligence and capability of human to able to design and build an architecture have been exist since prehistory. From Mesopotamia era where they use mud brick as their main building material, Egypt era where they modified the culture of Mesopotamia's mud brick into an adobe, Greece era where they start construct using stones, Roman era where the architectural revolution occurred as concrete was widely used, to the building technology nowadays where bricks, concrete and glasses are the common used materials. Throughout all these different eras, though building technology seems have developed tremendously from Mesopotamia era, however it seems that since Modern Architecture era, the development of the building technology has been stop and not develop furthermore.

One of the issues that occurs is that the construction industry has earned the reputation of being one of the highest hazardous industry in global. During the ancient eras, citizen is the labor that works in construction industry. Due to the lack of technologies, the citizens have to involve themselves in the architecture without the help of machineries which ended a lot of citizens were sacrifice during the process of building a building. Even nowadays with the help of all the technologies, the title of the highest hazardous industry is still crown to the construction industry. Besides being the most hazardous industry, a few studies also prove that construction industry is a wasting resources action and causing damage to the environment where it consumes more than 40% of raw materials in the environment in order to carry out the construction plan. The other issue will be the shortage of shelter for those who are forced to flee from their homes due to several reasons such as war, economic or natural disaster and shortage of affordable housing for low-income households in urban area.

In this high advancement technology era, Computer-Aided Design(CAD) software plays an important role in the design industry where it is use to enhance the productivity of designers and engineers and improve their design quality. In addition, CAD software also helps to improve the communications among the professionals in field through the documentation, nevertheless to create a database for manufacturing purposes. CAD software has become an compulsory tools for the designers and engineers in this era because of its benefits such as low product development costs and short design cycle. "Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering. When you finally get done and get to appreciate what you have done it is like a part of yourself that you've put together." - Bill Gates.

Technology has indeed bring a lot of advantages to human. However, due to the several issues that occur in construction industry, a new construction technology has been carry out and developed through these few years to minimize the problems. This new construction technology is none other than Contour Crafting or 3D printing. The nature of construction has remained intensely manual throughout the recorded history. Therefore, a new automation approach, Contour Crafting, has been develop by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, the professor of University of Southern California. Contour Crafting is a layered fabrication technology that aimed at automated construction of the whole structures as well as subcomponents. Besides Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, Enrico Dini who is the inventor of D-Shape which is a large 3D printer that create stone-like objects through a layer by layer printing process, also aim to construct a full-scale buildings by using 3D printing technology.

Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to discover the issues hiding in construction industry and explore the digital design and fabrication technology. Through this research, the intension of how is this fabrication technology benefit the publicity and construction industry will be carry out. Before that, an analysis of the accident statistic in construction industry will be carry out in order to have a better understanding in the construction industry. This dissertation has few objectives aside from the exploration of new construction technology and the benefits of practicing it in construction industry. The effectiveness and the impact of the Contour Crafting will also be identify through this dissertation. In order to achieve that, research methodology such as collecting information and data through websites and literature review of books are essential. 

Workshop

A few questions were raised during the workshop last week. I personally think that it definitely will help to refine the content for my dissertation and I shall give my feedback to all the questions.

• Public acceptance in Malaysia or around the world?

I personally was thinking about both Since this contour crafting will benefit us, why not we let the construction industry around the world practice this technology and observe the acceptance of the public? And since I am a Malaysian, of course I am going to discuss about the response of the public if we are implementing this technology in Malaysia as well.

• If target group is Malaysian, then war, natural disaster may not be relevant in Malaysia.

Yes, I am aware of that Malaysia is a fortunate country that is free from war and natural disaster. However, just because our country does not have war and natural disaster these past decades does not mean that the future is going to remain the same. It is important to take a precaution before something actually happened.

• Is contour crafting safe for dwelling?

In my opinion, of course contour crafting is safe for dwelling. With all those automated system installed within the wall, that will greatly reduce the rate of accidents that can happen in the house.

• Sustainability of contour crafting building?

Sustainability potential of contour crafting

There is no doubt that contour crafting is significantly faster than standard wood framing. By automating this part of construction process, contour crafting reduces the amount of time spent on a site thereby reducing the negative environmental impact of prolonged construction. 

• Will it result poor population for those stay in formal, standard houses without own identity?

I doubt that because there will never be a 100% of the population to agree on something, especially on something this new. Certain people might interest with contour crafting while some are not because they have already live under the standard houses for years and they are afraid of changing the situation that they already live for years.

•  The local culture and architecture may be lost after long term of hiring foreign worker to do all the construction works.

I would disagree on this because although there are a lot of foreign workers at the construction industry, that does not mean they own it. There still will be a site manager that controls everything on the site despite the foreign workers that do all the construction works. Therefore local culture and architecture will not be lost if the site management is under control by the site manager.

• What benefits for Malaysia context that is free from such natural disaster?

Contour crafting will be a great benefit for those country that suffered from natural disaster because contour crafting can build a house within a day and let it be a temporary shelter or permanent shelter. Although Malaysia is free from natural disaster, there will be always an accident such as fire. That's the benefit of contour crafting that can immediately provide a temporary shelter or permanent shelter for the residents that have their house burned.

Report outline *updated*

LEARNING AGREEMENT

 I.    RESEARCH TOPIC/ISSUES

·         ISSUE  :

                                     I.        Construction industry has earned the reputation of being a highly hazardous industry.

                                    II.        Construction industry consumes more than 40% of raw materials which is such a wasting resources action, causing damage to the environment.

                                   III.        There are around 37 million uprooted people in the world are forced to flee from their homes and seek for shelter due to several reasons such as war, economic or natural disaster.

                                  IV.        Shortage of affordable housing for low-income households in urban area.

·         AIM      : To explore the digital design and fabrication technologies and to determine the acceptance of publicity towards practicing Contour crafting in construction industry.

·         OBJECTIVES    :

                                      I.        To explore a new technology in building construction.

                                     II.        To identify the benefits of practicing contour crafting in construction industry.

                                    III.        To study and verify the effectiveness of the contour crafting on buildings.

                                   IV.        To study the impact of contour crafting in the future.

·         HYPOTHESIS:

                                     I.        Due to the efficiency of Contour crafting which does not save only time and cost, but also reduce the rate of accidents in construction industry.

                                    II.        Due to the flexibility design for individual identity by using Contour crafting.

WORKING TITLE : TRADITIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION METHODS VS CONTOUR CRAFTING.

II.       OUTLINE OF REPORT

·         Introduction

1.     The building construction development from ancient Mesopotamia to the late twentieth century.

2.     Technology plays an important role in the building construction regardless of building technology, CAD technology.

3.     Briefing on the issues/problems:

                  i.        Construction industry is a high hazardous industry.

                 ii.        Construction industry is wasting natural resources.

               iii.        People are forced to seek for temporary shelter due to war, economic or natural disaster.

                iv.        Low-income households in urban area.

·         Chapter 1 : Roles of Contour crafting in construction industry.

1.     Analysis of accident statistic in construction industry and find out the reasons - human carelessness, collapse of scaffolding, brick wall, etc.

2.     What is Contour crafting? How it helps in construction industry.

3.     Contour crafting will be a great solution for the problems that construction industry in Malaysia are facing - manpower, quality of productivity and time.

                  i.        Lack of manpower

Ø  less local workers are participated in construction industry, therefore need to hire workers from other country such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Ø  foreign workers have contracts cause the shortage of manpower if a project takes a longer time to complete.

Ø  workers at construction industry does not have any experience as some of them just need a job for living regardless of having any experience in that field.

                 ii.        Quality of productivity

Ø  lacked of trained manpower.

Ø  contractors lacked of skill knowledge in engineering construction.

Ø  project does not follow the scheduled time and does not have a good management.

                    i.       Project completion on time

Ø  does not follow the schedule.

Ø  cause by weather.

Ø  problem with contract workers.

4.     Contour crafting can solve the problems as it is an automated process without worrying the lack of manpower, quality of productivity and time.

5.     Contour crafting can reduce the usage of natural resources without doing all the frameworks before constructing a building - scaffolding and timber frame for houses, shop - houses.

6.     50% of global energy, 50% water, 60% materials, 80% land loss of agriculture, 60% timber products, 90% hardwoods are all directly linked with building construction while indirectly, 50% of carol reefs and 25% rain forest are being damaged due to buildings and constructions.

·         Chapter 2 : How can Contour crafting help the victims of natural disaster.

1.     Case study 1 : Sichuan earthquake 2008

Ø  4,8 million people are left homeless after the earthquake happened.

2.     Case study 2 : Tsunami 2004

Ø  10 million people are homeless.

Ø  an opinion was raised that human destruction of carol reefs may have played a role in exacerbating the destruction caused by the tsunami.

Ø  on the Surin Island chain of Thailand's coast, people may have been saved as the tsunami rushed against the carol reefs, lessening its impact.

Ø  in a way, it is relate back to Chapter 1 where building construction indirectly damaged 50% of the carol reefs. If it continues, there will be no carol reefs to help lessening the impact of tsunami if it happens again in the future.

3.     Contour crafting can offer a temporary/permanent shelter for those victims because of its "a house per day"

4.     Contour crafting is adaptable and can use in-situ materials to construct, thus eliminating the need to transport materials from long distance, saving time and costs.

·         Chapter 3 : Low-income housing in urban area.

1.     Case study : India

Ø  Understand the problems that urban area are facing - rural-urban migration, etc.

Ø  Urbanization is positive, even if it means poor population is coming in urban areas > if poor population comes in urban area, may cause urban decay due to lack of money for maintenance.

Ø  Urban decay > buildings are overcrowded, run down and deteriorating > shabby appearance, illegal or unstable structures, improper sanitation facilities.

Ø  50% population live in slums due to lack of housing, therefore they illegally created colonies of housing on open spaces in cities - do not have any civic amenities such as drinking water, sewage, electricity, etc.

Ø  To solve the slums problem, houses can be with automated plumbing, automated electrical network installation by Contour crafting nevertheless the low costs of a Contour crafted house.

Ø  Due to the rural-urban migration, demand of houses in urban area is increasing > Contour crafting's high speed construction can be a solution.

·         Conclusion

       III.        RESEARCH PLAN AND METHODOLOGY

      Primary Research

       Information and data collect through website, statistics, news.

      Secondary Research

·         Literature review of the book, Beyond Shelter-Architecture for crisis, edited by Marie J. Aquilino.

·         Literature review of the book, AM Envelope: The Potential of Additive Manufacturing for Facade Construction, by Holger Strauss.

·         Literature review of the book, Full Scale Contour Crafting Applications, by Laura Haymond.

·         Interview with specialist in Contour crafting through emailing.

         

Report outline

Introduction

• The building construction development from ancient Mesopotamia to the late twentieth century.
• Technology plays an important in the building construction regardless of building technology, CAD technology.
• Briefing on the issues/problems:

1. Construction industry is a high hazardous industry.
2. Construction industry is wasting natural resources.
3. People are forced to seek for temporary shelter due to war, economic or natural disaster.
4. Low-income households in urban area.

Chapter 1: The roles of Contour Crafting in construction industry.

• Analysis the accident statistic in construction industry and find out the reasons - human carelessness, collapse of scaffolding, brick wall, etc.
• Contour crafting will be a great solution for the problems that construction industry in Malaysia are facing - manpower, qualify of productivity and time.

Lack of manpower

1. less local workers therefore need to hire workers from other country such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
2. foreign workers have contracts will cause shortage of manpower if a project takes a longer period to finish.
3. workers at construction industry does not have any experience as some of them just need a job for living regardless of having any experience.

Quality of productivity

1. lacked of trained manpower.
2. contractors lacked of skill knowledge in engineering construction.
3. project does not follow the schedule and does not have a good management.

Project completion on time

1. does not follow the timetable.
2. cause by weather.
3. problem with contract workers.

• Contour crafting can solve the problems as it is an automated process without worrying about the lack of manpower, quality of productivity and time.
• Contour crafting can reduce the usage of natural resources without doing all the frameworks before constructing a building - scaffolding and wood for houses, shop-houses.
• 50% of global energy, 50% water, 60% materials, 80% land loss to agriculture, 60% timber products, 90% hardwoods are all directly lined with building construction while indirectly, 50% of carol reefs and 25% rain forest are being damaged duo to buildings and construction.

Chapter 2 : How Contour crafting can help the victims of natural disaster.

Case study 1 : Sichuan earthquake 2008

• 4,800,000 people are left homeless right after the earthquake.

Case study 2 : Tsunami 2004

• 10,000,000 people became homeless.
• an opinion was raised that human destruction of carol reefs may have played a role in exacerbating the destruction caused by the tsunami.
• on the Surin Island chain of Thailand's coast, people may have been saved as the tsunami rushed against the carol reefs, lessening its impact.
• in a way, it is relate back to chapter 1 where building construction indirectly damaged 50% of the carol reefs. If it continues, there will be no more carol reefs help lessening the impact of tsunami if it happens in the future.

• Contour crafting can offer a temporary shelter for those victims cause of its "a house per day".
• Contour crafting is adaptable and can use in situ construction material, thus eliminating the need to transport materials long distance, saving time and costs.

Chapter 3 : Low income housing in urban area.

*still working on this chapter. Gotta understand more on this urban area. 

Academic Research

Define the problems

1. Construction industry has earned the reputation of being a highly hazardous industry.
2. Construction industry consumes more than 40% of raw materials which is such a wasting resources action, causing damage to the environment.
3. There are around 37 million uprooted people in the world are forced to flee from their homes and seek for shelter due to several reasons such as war, economic or natural disaster.
4. Shortage of affordable housing for low-income households in urban area.

Literature Review

1. Accident statistic in construction industry
2. 2 workers dead and 10 seriously injured in industrial accident at work place
3. Three killed, one injured in construction site accident
4. 15,419 construction site accidents in last 5 years in Malaysia.
5. Construction and the environment
6. Emergency housing/temporary shelter
7. Low income housing

Aim : To determine the acceptance of publicity towards practicing Contour Crafting in the construction industry.

Hypothesis

1. Due to the efficiency of Contour Crafting which does not save only time and cost, also reduce the rate of accidents in construction industry.
2. Due to the flexibility design for individual identity by using Contour Crafting.

Building houses on site with Contour Crafting

A longer animation on automated reinforcement, automated plumbing, automated electrical network installation.

3D printing techniques will be used to construct buildings, here and in outer space.

3D printing techniques will be used to construct buildings, here and in outer space.

An article by Lucas Mearian about Contour Crafting and also using Contour Crafting in outer space.

As the previous post mentioned, there were a project supported NASA that use the in situ material to build a lunar structure. Now, besides Moon, there will be also a project at Mars. However, as they developing the Contour Crafting in these 2 planets, they face a problem. Due to the thin atmosphere on Mars and the lack of thereof on Moon, water would evaporate from the cement or concrete, leaving it to return to its origin of dust and rocks. 

Contour Crafting: Automated Construction: Behrokh Khoshnevis at TEDxOjai

A video presentation by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis at TEDxOjai, 2012.

The presentation is about an analysis by psychologists identified the pyramid of human needs which situated at the bottom of the pyramid are food and shelter. From there, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis analysed the condition of shelter at the 21st century and found the problems-the current construction methods and propose the solution to change the situation-Contour Crafting.

The presentation also shows the concept of Contour Crafting and the works can be done during the process such as automated reinforcement, automated plumbing, automated electrical network installation through animation video. Architectures often limit themselves because of the construction, however with Contour Crafting, architectures can design more aesthetically. Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis also talked about the current project that use the in situ material to build a lunar structure which is supported by NASA.

The advancement of technology is truly admirable. Who could actually thought that we could build our house by printing? Now as the technology is getting more and more advance, people are started to feel insecure because it might take away the job opportunity for them. So will people accept this technology or not? 

Emily Pilloton's blog

Robo-builder launching in California.
A blog regarding Contour Crafting by Ms Emily at year 2007. Because it is a new technology and it is not being develop yet, therefore there are some of the negative feedback during that time such as the reinforcement bar, plumbing and electrical. However, as time passed away, those negative feedback are being answered during the presentation at TEDxOjai at year 2012.

Contour crafting

"In the future, we will print our houses."

Yes you heard it right! Our houses will be printed out in the future instead of using the concrete, brick, limestone etc. A research has been done by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis from the University of Southern California and a new layered fabrication technology-Contour Crafting has been developed.

As the technology keeps improving, people tend to live a better lifestyle so they move to the mega city. That causes the high demand of houses. If the demands increases and supply remains unchanged, there will be a shortage occurs which lead to a higher equilibrium price. Therefore everything needs to be fast in order to solve the problem of shortage. With the construction technology nowadays, the time needed to build a house is questionable because it concerns of size of the house, human labor, weather, etc. To conclude about it, it takes time to completely build a house. However, if Contour Crafting is being implement in the construction field, it definitely save a lot of time because it can print a house per day.

Now, what is the level of acceptance of the people towards this Contour Crafting? Yes, Contour Crafting is a new technology and it helps us a lot but what people think about it? This is the question that I am going to find out through this dissertation research project. My objectives for this dissertation research project is to explore this new technology that might be implement in our future and also to verify the effectiveness of Contour Crafting. Other than that, I can also study the evolution of construction from the history until now.