Overview

General introduction to the am-cor Prefab System, Ferrocement technology, its applications & building types, and how everything fits together!

EX­AMPLES

COM­PLETED

30,000 sq.ft. 3 story earth-bermed agro-in­dus­tri­al am-cor winery & ware­house with half-tim­ber and stone ven­eers

EN­ERGY SAV­INGS

An­nu­al min­im­um sav­ings of US $30,000 for HVAC

UN­DER CON­STRUC­TION

50’ Free span: flex­ible in­teri­or for as­sembly and com­mu­nity use.

TOR­NADO RES­IST­ANCE

High wind res­ist­ant en­gin­eer­ing in OK, USA

See our Buildings Gallery for more ex­amples.

How It Works

am-cor Kits con­form to: ASTM (Amer­ic­an So­ci­ety for Test­ing and Ma­ter­i­als) stand­ards, UL (Un­der­writers Labor­at­or­ies) fire res­ist­ant as­sem­blies, and the IBC (In­ter­na­tion­al Build­ing Code)

PRE­FAB­RIC­ATED KITS

  • En­tire build­ing de­livered as a pre­fab­ric­ated, pan­el­ized, pre-en­gin­eered Kit
  • Struc­ture built quickly & ef­fi­ciently, no cut­ting or drilling
  • Easy cus­tom­iz­a­tion & ex­pan­sion
  • Fast, trade-friendly, stand­ard ten­ant build-out
  • Zero con­struc­tion waste
  • On site build­er crew in­struc­tion in­cluded with every Kit

AP­PLIC­A­TIONS

  • Com­mer­cial: re­tail, res­taur­ants, ho­tels & shops, of­fices, med­ic­al & edu­ca­tion­al
  • In­dus­tri­al: ware­houses, stor­age fa­cil­it­ies, ag­ri­cul­ture, me­di­um-span
  • Res­id­en­tial: af­ford­able, single-fam­ily, multi-fam­ily, dorm­it­or­ies
  • Re­con­struc­tion/Mil­it­ary: rap­id-re­sponse, safe­houses, bal­list­ics-res­ist­ance

“We of­fer an ad­vanced & green solu­tion to today’s con­struc­tion in­dustry:
Stand­ard con­struc­tion is just too ex­pens­ive, time-con­sum­ing, and un­sus­tain­able.
Our Fer­ro­ce­ment am-cor Sys­tem is the an­swer.”

- An­gus W. Mac­don­ald, In­vent­or & CEO

Our Goals

am-cor inc. be­lieves that through a com­bin­a­tion of glob­al think­ing, en­vir­on­ment­al aware­ness, and con­struc­tion in­nov­a­tion, people can in­ex­pens­ively build green, sus­tain­able, and beau­ti­ful build­ings that will with­stand nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, rising en­ergy prices, and the test of time.

What is the am-cor Sys­tem?

The am-cor Sys­tem™ is a simple, fast, af­ford­able way to build green & sus­tain­able build­ings.
Ar­chi­tect Angus W. Macdonald in­ven­ted and pat­en­ted the am-cor Uni­fied Steel & Ce­ment Struc­tur­al Sys­tem™ after search­ing for a bet­ter al­tern­at­ive to stand­ard con­struc­tion meth­ods. He wanted something that was simple to con­struct, quick to erect, cheap to build, and above all, beau­ti­ful, dur­able and sus­tain­able.

Why use the am-cor Sys­tem?

The am-cor Sys­tem is:

In­ex­pens­ive

  • am-cor con­struc­tion is less ex­pens­ive than: stand­ard re­in­forced con­crete block & ma­sonry, precast, met­al build­ings, stick-built, SIPS, etc.

Fast To Build

  • am-cor Kits are: pre­fab­ric­ated & pre-en­gin­eered, ar­rive ready for im­me­di­ate as­sembly, and are as­sembled in a frac­tion of stand­ard con­struc­tion time

High Qual­ity

  • am-cor build­ings are bet­ter con­struc­tion for a lower price: disaster resistant (hur­ricane, fire, tor­nado, earth­quake, flood); mold, mil­dew, in­sect & ver­min res­ist­ant (ter­mites, rats, etc.); and en­vir­on­ment­ally friendly

Green & Sus­tain­able

  • am-cor shells are made of 100% re­cyc­lable ma­ter­i­al, and have an ap­prox. 40-60% lower car­bon foot­print than stand­ard con­struc­tion; am-cor build­ings are in­her­ently sus­tain­able, and re­quire vir­tu­ally zero main­ten­ance

What Is It?

am-cor Structural Ferrocement Walls

Fer­ro­ce­ment = highly re­in­forced, dense & thin steel & ce­ment shells; ori­gin­ally used for boat hulls.

The am-cor Sys­tem™ is a mod­ern, Ferrocement con­struc­tion sys­tem, fea­tur­ing:

  • true com­pos­ite, in­teg­rated steel & ce­ment struc­tures
  • unibody, seam­less, ex­ter­i­or stress-skins
  • high flex­ib­il­ity & ad­apt­ab­il­ity
  • high strength-to-weight ra­tio

STRENGTH

 

LOW COST

  • Save 15-20% over stand­ard build­ing con­struc­tion costs
  • Com­plete in 2/3 time of stand­ard con­struc­tion
  • Save 10% an­nu­ally on stand­ard build­ing op­er­a­tion costs

DUR­AB­IL­ITY

  • Flood-res­ist­ant
  • Ex­tremely low main­ten­ance over build­ing’s life­time
  • No rust, no de­teri­or­a­tion

GREEN

  • Sus­tain­ab­il­ity: ap­prox­im­ately 70% smal­ler car­bon foot­print
  • Far less ma­ter­i­al used than stand­ard con­struc­tion:
    • 20% less steel
    • 80% less ce­ment

Tried & True

The am-cor Sys­tem is a proven sys­tem: am-cor struc­tures have weathered tor­nadoes in USA’s Tor­nado Al­ley, hur­ricanes in the Carib­bean, and floods on Vir­gin­ia’s East­ern Shore. Our build­ing shells are in­ter­na­tion­ally code com­pli­ant, and have been ap­proved by the US Army Corps of En­gin­eers for con­struc­tion in storm surge areas. The first struc­ture was built in 1996. Its Fer­ro­cement con­struc­tion has with­stood the test of time, with zero struc­tur­al main­ten­ance & min­im­al ex­ter­i­or main­ten­ance.

am-cor System vs. Reinforced Concrete am-cor System vs. Reinforced Concrete 3D cutaway of a standard am-cor finished panel vs. a standard reinforced concrete block wall