Comparison of Steel and Reinforced Concrete as a Sustainable Building Material in Northern Cyprus

Over the last decades, the use and development of sustainability has become an important issue in all fields, including the construction. Moreover, building materials have always played significant and defining roles in construction value, from the Stone Age to the material world of today. Therefore, the lack of consideration of sustainability in building materials is a serious problem in the construction sector. With regard to Northern Cyprus construction sector, reinforced concrete is generally used to construct buildings structure beams and columns, while alternative structural material like steel is not widely considered. This research tries to compare sustainability between reinforced concrete as a widely using structural material and steel as an alternative structural building material in Northern Cyprus construction sector. In addition, this study tries to encourage usage of sustainable building materials in building construction sector. Accordingly, the methodology of this study is based on evaluation and comparison between reinforced concrete and steel in context of sustainability features. Additionally, the results of evaluations are analyzed by using a point-based rating system to achieve enhanced comparison. According to the result of this thesis, steel is a more sustainable structural building material than reinforced concrete. For instance, steel as a recyclable and reusable building material can reduce environmental impacts from construction by reducing the use of raw materials. Also, steel structure is more economical with the added advantages of being constructed faster, lighter and more flexible than reinforced concrete. However, as mentioned reinforced concrete is a widely used structural building material in the Northern Cyprus construction sector. Hence, all architects and constructors have to be aware and consider the benefits of using sustainable materials in the building construction sector. Keywords: Sustainability, Building Material, Features of Sustainable Material, Reinforced Concrete, Steel, Northern Cyprus.