BETA – INDUSTRIALIZED SYSTEM (Burt, Even Or, Tene 1972-76).

The Beta Industrialized System was developed mainly for high-rise housing and working space office buildings. At the time of its development the system was considered experimental and very innovative, with a carrying Staggered Truss System (S.T.S) steel structure, of modular light-weight prefabricated floor slabs, dry wall plaster partitions, a prefabricated apartment sanitary installation units and a very elaborate system of thermal-acoustic insulation, fire protection and waterproof sealing solutions. The steel S.T.S structure, Virandel shaped truss components, shop built and storey high, spanning the entire building’s width, were supported on external continuous steel columns of rectangular R.H.S profiles.
The staggered truss arrangement could provide for an average double span of the utilized light concrete floor slabs, up to 240 sqm of column free floor areas.
The initial development stages were sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Housing and were later carried into a prototype building stage, resulting with the 20 storey high, 640sqm for every floor level, 145 apartment’s housing project, to be constructed in Izraeliah-Haifa (1974-76). Rising above the ground, from the third floor and up, the system lived to its promise and reached the impressive erection rate of 3 floors per month (with everything included).
The Beta System received a wide public and professional coverage, including an article in the American Newsweek Magazine (under ‘New Products and Processes’-1975).