Building Construction in North Cyprus: Problems and Alternatives Solutions

In recent years the number of medium rise buildings is slowly increasing in North Cyprus. As a result, the need to use new construction materials and technologies is becoming more essential. Using hot rolled steel and cold rolled galvanized light gauge steel for building frames are two of the possible alternatives to reinforced concrete building frames currently used in the market. The number of steel framed buildings so far is less than five percent of all the buildings. Steel is an imported material. It is mainly used for the industrial buildings, either as truss roof system and/or complete portal frame and/or truss roof steel framed single storey structures. The engineers are not knowledgeable enough, the lack of training, inadequate fabrication facilities and many years of having used to reinforced concrete framed structures are the main reasons for engineers not using enough steel framed structures. The first part of this paper investigates the problems and possible solution of steel usage for structures in North Cyprus by analysing the number of buildings constructed after the year 2000. The second part summarizes the problems relating to the local reinforced concrete framed building construction, including inadequacies of repair, quality control, material quality and isolation of buildings from the external effects. Sustainability, stability and repair aspects for steel structures in comparison to reinforced concrete structures in North Cyprus are also briefly discussed in this paper.