TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT
WHILE THE INNOVATIVE new AcerMetric building system has the potential to have a considerable influence on building techniques , it was in fact inspired by a personal experience for Founder and Chairman David Appleford .
After buying his first house in the mid-2000s , Appleford was frustrated to be told not to redecorate for a year to allow for subsidence and cracking , and to make a list of faults for the builder to address at a later date .
He said : “ I ’ ve had an older car and didn ’ t have to do that ; you would be furious if within a year things started to crack and fall apart . I thought , this is crazy , we shouldn ’ t be building houses like this , and asked how we would build if we designed it as a massproduction system , as a machine , to forget it being a building .”
In answering this question , AcerMetric was born . Appleford used dominoes to test the concept and discover how best to align the geometric shapes in 3D , before it became apparent that in building a cube with dominoes , the pieces won ’ t fit .
“ In the ideal cube there are 12 edges that don ’ t interlock . Houses
AcerMetric construction elements ca
are totally reliant on the foundations ; if there is any subsidence it will collapse and when you stand back you think ‘ how complex actually is a house or building ?’ Why are we paying huge sums of money for houses which , despite the size , are much simpler to produce than cars , for example ?”
Eureka The breakthrough came when Appleford found a way to interlock the walls to the floors and the ceiling with the same geometric pieces .
“ At first we thought symmetrically , but I couldn ’ t get the shapes to lock in
30 N ovember 2014