Feature
Roofing
THE STATE OF
Uwe Schlüter from MiTek Industries South Africa, answers African Design
Magazine’s questions on the state of roofing in South Africa.
Are designers embracing sustainable architecture, or is price the driving
factor?
Designers and architects as well as developers are becoming more and more aware of
sustainable architecture/structures – it is, however, price that still dictates the final
outcome or implementation on the project. So the secret lies in employing sustainable
elements in the design that do not actually increase the final cost such as MiTek roof
structures in either timber or Ultra-Span light gauge steel form. MiTek since its inception
in 1956 with the invention of the Gang-Nail® connector plate and later on in 1989 the
Ultra-Span® LGS roof system – has always been at the forefront of ensuring that all its
roof structure designs are very sustainable by means of material conservation.
How is modern architecture, and legislation, affecting the evolution of your
product?
Modern architecture has much less of an impact on our roof designs as MiTek has
worldwide for many years already developed very sophisticated software to ensure even
the most complex roof shapes / structures can easily be designed and constructed. The
bigger challenge does, however, come from SANS10400 – Energy Efficiency code, where
thick insulation blankets are now expected to be accommodated between purlins and the
actual roof sheeting.
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video on MiTek