FT
Thursday Nov 07, 2024
Monday, 3 April 2017 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Eng. Anil Hira delivers his talk
An unprecedented collaboration between Sri Lanka’s chapter of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), with the CTBUH chapter in India, resulted in a very promising inaugural Regional Tall Building Forum 2017, which concluded successfully recently at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Center (SLECC) in Colombo.
Endorsing the event from the standpoint of the local construction industry, INSEE Cement, Sri Lanka’s leading cement manufacturer, joined in as Platinum Sponsor of the highly-anticipated forum.
The full-day conference, held in conjunction with the first Global Lift and Escalator Expo, attracted regional industry leaders across multiple disciplines related to tall building constructions, structural engineers, architects, urban planners, developers, contractors, academics and many more, who utilised the networking opportunity to gain knowledge from distinguished experts on tall building trends, discover new business opportunities and develop collaborative partnerships.
At the outset of the conference, the tall building landscape in Sri Lanka and India was discussed by both Chairmen of the respective CTBUH Country Chapters.
“Our habitat is changing,” stated Girish Dravid, Chairman of CTBUH India and Director of Sterling Engineering Consultancy. “It’s happening at such a rapid pace when compared to Western countries.”
Participants at the forum
As a pioneer of change in the local construction industry, INSEE Cement, through a dedicated Innovation and Application (I&A) Center, has introduced innovative cement products and concrete solutions, addressing sustainability challenges by minimising environmental damage.
“One of our key sustainability aspects has always been to progressively reduce CO2 emissions across all our products as well as operations,” said Sanka Seneviratne, Head of Industrial Sales at INSEE Cement. “With the focus shifting towards sustainable tall buildings as confirmed by the expert speakers here today, INSEE is at the forefront of the paradigm shift, introducing new technologies and adaptive solutions. We offer services such as thermal modeling for constructions, optimised mixes and most importantly our latest initiative – a mobile laboratory equipped with the latest technology - so that our experts can visit clients onsite and carry out required tests and knowledge transfers. Sri Lanka is definitely headed in the right direction and we are glad to be part of the revolution.”
T.A.K. Mathews, Principal Consultant at TAK Consulting, India and an expert on lifts, took the stage to talk about the vertical transportation industry in his session, which was followed by the second panel discussion before the event concluded.
Founded in 1969, CTBUH is the world apex body for tall building professionals, supported by a global member network of more than 800,000 architects, civil and structural engineers, building services engineers, quantity surveyors, building planners, developers and other construction professionals, with around 6,000 offices worldwide.
CTBUH is considered to be the global authority that arbitrates the height of tall buildings and announces the title of ‘The World’s Tallest Building’ each year.