Cement has become 'so much more'

Times and tastes have changed. Today's design trends are demanding decorative surfaces of pure materials, and cement has emerged as a favoured finish, showing off its raw qualities on interior surfaces. Only there is now a range of natural colour. Pure white cement has joined the older, more common or garden grey.

Chatchawan Sethaburth, managing director of Siam White Cement, last week said research had resulted in the new grey and white cement, which were created to meet the demands of architects and interior designers for innovative cement finishes on new buildings.

Siam White Cement's parent, the SCG Group, began its research into a changed role for cement by consulting architects and interior designers as long ago as 2002. The group saw a business opportunity in created added value for cement.

These days, 60 per cent of cement consumed in Thailand goes into concrete for infrastructure, including poles, roads and bridges, and buildings both large and small. It was first delivered in a standard quality. But demand has led to specialised preparations for particular qualities such as drying speed and hardness, and there is also ready-to-mix concrete and concrete of pre-fabrication.

A further 25 per cent of Thailand's cement consumption goes in cement render on walls and floors of buildings, while the remaining 15 per cent is used for other construction purposes such as roofs and cement board.

However, most architects and interior designers are now interested in using cement for more decorative jobs, such as showing pure textured cement on the walls of a building, or using a mix of cement colours when designing bridges, office buildings or residences, Chatchawan said.

Some are even using cement to design furniture and other home-decoration items.

These trends have arisen out of changing customer tastes, and a demand for pure, undecorated materials rather than covering a building or its interior with paint.

To keep abreast of changing demands in building design, Siam White Cement is researching more innovative cement products and expects to release two or three new products every year, Chatchawan said.

An example is the company's Finazzo, a fine anti-grate terrazzo, which will change the appearance of terrazzo to serve modern demands. Finazzo will support the work of both architects and interior designers.

"We believe this is a new market, albeit still quite small. But it is a potential market for us to create added value for cement. We can no longer say this is only cement, because cement is now so much more," he said.