The new material has been developed by Italcementi Group to meet the project needs of the building that will represent Italy in China during the six months of the International Exhibition. «After meeting architect Giampaolo Imbrighi, project manager of the Pavilion, we had the need to identify, in the shortest possible time, an innovative and cost-effective solution to make the Italian Pavilion’s walls transparent - explained Giovanni Ferrario, Chief Operating Officer of Italcementi Group. We successfully managed to set up our new ‘transparent cement’ as a result of winning field-research experience. Once again, Italcementi Group is successful in bringing the innovation to a sector, such as the building materials industry, that is only apparently “traditional”. Innovation is playing an increasingly important role in our company’s mission».

The new product developed at the Bergamo-based laboratories ensures transparency through an innovative cement / admixtures mix design. The excellent flow properties of the mix allow bonding a plastic resin matrix into a final panel that combines the typical robustness of cementitious materials and the possibility of filtering light both inwards and outwards. This is the first solution for an industrial application of “transparent cement”: «The resins – explain the researchers – if adequately inserted in the cementitious material, have higher transparency performance than the optical fibres experimentally used in this field, but also cost much less allowing for their application on a large scale».

3,774 transparent panels made from 189 tons of “transparent cement” will cover a total surface area of 1,887 square metres, approx. 40% of the entire Pavilion, creating a sequence of lights and shadows in constant evolution during the day. The transparent effect is more evident when it is dark and, seen from the outside, the building will allow the interior lights to filter through while, from inside, during the day, it will show the changes in the levels of daylight.

ITALCEMENTI GROUP
Roberta Tragaioli
Tel. +39 02 290 242 12
Fax +39 02 290 243 07
E-mail: r.tragaioli@italcementi.it
Url : www.italcementigroup.com

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