Current status of titanium for construction in foreign countries

Since the 1970s, when Japan pioneered the use of titanium in buildings, Japan has continued to use the largest amount of titanium in buildings, although hundreds of buildings in the U.S., China, the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries have used titanium. Titanium used in buildings is mainly used for roofing, supplemented by exterior wall decoration, and also accounts for a certain proportion of structure, interior decoration, and skylight partitions.

Japan is an island country surrounded by sea, the building is deeply affected by the ocean climate, at the same time, Japan is a country with frequent earthquakes and volcanoes, building design and selection of materials to consider the requirements of seismic and fire-retardant. In addition, Japan is also a very developed industrial country, automobile exhaust caused by acid rain and industrial soot to the environment is also a relatively large impact. Therefore, titanium was first popularized and applied in Japan.

In 1973, Japan for the first time in the morning suck the goddess of Goddess of the roof of the use of 0. 3 mm thick gold titanium plate, 50 m2, about 203 kg. made a successful experience of titanium construction, in other shrines and other buildings also used titanium, but the scale of all very small. It was not until 1984 that titanium sheets 0.3 mm thick (720 m2, about 1 t) were used again on the roof of the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Electric Power House that the curtain of titanium use in Japanese buildings was raised. The use of titanium has evolved from being limited to shrines and temples to general buildings such as schools and houses, such as the roof of Maten Elementary School in Okinawa and Takayasu Residence in Nagoya. The use of titanium was no longer limited to roofs, but was also applied to internal and external wall decorations, window frames, eaves, etc. The amount of titanium used increased rapidly, with more than 40 construction projects using titanium in 1986-1987, and 5 tons of titanium used in the office building of the Osaka Sansei Metals Company alone. The rapid growth of titanium used in construction, with mature technology and rich experience, has become a global model of titanium used in construction, which has attracted the attention of Europe and the United States.

Titanium for construction in Europe and the United States started in the 90's. Although it has been applied in the United States, Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, Egypt and other countries, it is limited to some individual cases of special buildings.

In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which cost 100 million dollars, was completed. In order to make the museum strong and beautiful, the construction material used is titanium plate with a thickness of 0.3 mm, and the amount of titanium used reaches 60 t. The Guggenheim Museum's distinctive curves and sharp corners of the shape of the design, coupled with the soaring glass atrium and titanium to show the artistic charm, so that it was named by the press as “the most beautiful museum on earth”. The expansion was designed by the BNP Paribas Airport Group. The expansion of Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates, designed by BNP Paribas Airports Group, was the first successful example of the use of titanium as a structural material in a building, using several hundred tons of titanium. 5 tons of titanium were used for the interior of the outdoor café in the Conde Nasta building in New York in 1999. Large-scale construction of titanium boom is quietly emerging.

China's construction titanium status quo

Titanium for construction in China started later, and is also limited to special buildings with high artistic requirements as in Europe and the United States. For example, the Hangzhou Grand Theater, completed in 2003 and located in Qianjiang New City, is the first case of titanium being used in a large building in China. The theater was designed by Canadian designers, the oval back cover used more than 6,000 pieces of industrial pure titanium plate, weighing about 160 t. After that, the world's top national theater designed by French architects, its 36,000 m2 circular roof used 60 t of industrial pure titanium plate, has been put into use in 2007. In addition, the roof of the first pavilion of Linping Donglai in Hangzhou used 3,710 m2 of titanium, the MTRC Central Railway Station in Hong Kong, China, used 6,500 m2 (thickness 0.4mm) of industrial pure titanium plate, and the lobby of the International Plaza of the Dazhongsi Temple in Beijing also used titanium as a decorative material. But both the amount and the extensive degree of use, China can not be compared with Japan.