History of the Development of LGS Structures
Although many consider cold-formed steel framing—LGS construction—to be a “new” building product, it has in fact been used in North America for over 100 years. The use of cold-formed steel elements in building construction began in the United States and England in the 1850s. During the 1920s and 1930s, the adoption of cold-formed steel as a construction material remained limited due to the lack of appropriate design standards, as well as the absence of material-specific guidance in building codes.
In 1933, at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago (World’s Fair), a “home of the future” was presented, fully framed in steel. Architect Howard T. Fisher was responsible for developing this house, based on his research into the use of steel in railcars and other manufacturing industries. During the 1940s, Lustron Homes built and sold nearly 2,500 steel-framed houses that also featured finished exterior and interior surfaces.
Standards and Regulations for LGS Construction
Although requirements for hot-rolled structural steel had already been incorporated into building codes by the 1930s, there were no provisions for cold-formed steel. Key differences between hot-rolled and cold-formed steel made it impractical to apply hot-rolled provisions to cold-formed structural products.
First, the cold-forming process enabled shapes that differed significantly from traditional “I-beams”: cold-formed steel sections have a uniform thickness throughout the cross-section. Due to their thin-walled nature, cold-formed steel members are prone to local buckling under relatively low loads in certain configurations.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), originally founded in 1855 as the American Iron Association, recognized the need for a design standard for cold-formed steel in construction. In February 1939, AISI’s Committee on Building Codes sponsored a research project at Cornell University to develop data specifically for a design specification. George Winter, often referred to as the “father of cold-formed steel,” led this research.
The first edition of the AISI Specification for the Design of Light Gauge Steel Structural Members was published in 1946. Compared to today’s Specification, the available data was very limited, but it marked an important beginning. Designers and specifiers now had a code-adopted standard from which they could specify materials, while manufacturers were able to develop material and property tables based on standardized methods.
Prefabricated Structural Elements
At the same time that cold-formed steel framing was gaining strength as a construction material, the use of gypsum boards was also increasing. Patented in 1894 by Augustine Sackett, the original gypsum board was brittle, rough, flammable, and lacked a smooth finishing surface. However, over the next 50 years, improvements were made, including replacing layers of wool felt with paper, introducing air into the core to make the product lighter and less brittle, and developing Type X boards for enhanced fire resistance. By 1955, half of all new homes in the United States were built using gypsum wallboard, while the other half used gypsum lath and plaster. The Gypsum Association and its member companies conducted a series of fire tests and have published fire-resistance manuals since 1931.
At the end of World War II, many countries faced an acute housing shortage. During this period, the use of LGS construction was more widely introduced into the building industry, primarily as an internal framing system in prefabricated steel-framed housing. Initially, these “prefabricated buildings” had minimal thermal insulation, which led to thermal bridging. With improvements in insulation, LGS construction found broader application as infill systems in multi-storey buildings with primary structural frames made of hot-rolled steel or reinforced concrete.
In the United States, since the 1990s, over 20% of all single-family homes have been built using this method, and its adoption continues to grow year by year. Sustainable development goals cannot be achieved without fundamentally changing the way buildings are constructed. These drivers have compelled the construction industry to significantly transform its building practices, developing alternative construction methods to comply with evolving building regulations and sustainability requirements.
Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)
Advances in technology have led to improvements in building design, enabling many of the issues associated with LGS construction in earlier buildings to be overcome. Other construction methods have also evolved, most of which can now be manufactured in factories and delivered to site ready for assembly. These are known as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
LGS construction systems have become the leading solution for prefabricated buildings, surpassing timber and concrete construction in this segment. This construction method has been widely used for more than 20 years across the globe, including in Canada, the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Russia, Africa, Scandinavian countries, and South America.