As architectural ambitions grow across Central Asia, engineers and developers are increasingly turning to Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GRC) as the material of choice for facades in seismically active regions — and the reasoning goes well beyond aesthetics.
Conventional precast concrete panels, while durable, carry significant weight — often 300 to 500 kg per square meter. In earthquake-prone areas, that mass translates directly into structural load and risk. GRC panels, by contrast, typically weigh just 10 to 20 kg per square meter, reducing the seismic burden on a building’s frame without compromising visual impact or surface detail.
This weight advantage is only part of the story. GRC’s fiber-reinforced composition also gives it flexibility that rigid concrete systems lack — allowing panels to better absorb vibration and movement during seismic events, rather than cracking under sudden stress.
At SALBEN Group, this isn’t theoretical. Almaty sits in a zone with seismic activity reaching up to 9 points on the MSK scale, and over 20 years we’ve developed proprietary fixing and anchoring systems specifically rated for these conditions — solutions built and tested in the field, not adapted from milder climates.
As more developers across the CIS factor seismic resilience into early design decisions, we expect GRC adoption to keep accelerating — not just for its engineering benefits, but because it lets architects pursue complex geometries without trading away safety.
