Published Paper Details:

Housing is one of the major needs across the globe as well as in India. The housing shortage in India around 18 million houses, majority of the needs in urban housing for economically weaker sections mostly. The housing provided in urban areas is in the form of multistoried residential apartment due to space constraints and high land cost. The cost of construction plays a major part in cost paid up by the end user .This construction cost takes up around 50-60% of the overall cost of the project .Looking closely at this cost of construction through appraisal of the Plinth area rates by CPWD one can observe the R.C.C. captures the major sector of the cost and the main constituents of this cost component comprises of concrete and steel. The design of structure commands the quantity of steel and concrete which can be reduced by reducing the dead load the structure has to support .Walls contribute a large share in the overall dead load , therefore by substitution of walling solution with a lighter counterpart dead load can be reduced which in turn will reap financial benefits by saving the quantity of steel and concrete in the RCC structure. Structural analysis is carried out STAAD Pro for four multistoried buildings taking earthquake and wind loads in consideration. The five walling solutions considered were as follows: clay brick, autoclaved aerated concrete, fly-ash blocks, cellular light weight concrete and drywall partitions. for the Cost analysis shows that drywall which is the lowest dead load has major savings with cost reduction being 9.45% in comparison to other walling solutions