When I was a small and intensely young person, my parents would drive me down the California coastline to a town called Carmel near Monterrey Bay, where we would hang out on the beach and frolic amongst the slowly rotting kelp and aggressive sea gulls, eat burgers at Flaherty’s Seafood Restaurant (which specializes in seafood, not land food – I was five), and weave in and out of various art galleries until we were tired enough to return to our hotel and fall asleep.

Image courtesy citi-data.com

One time down in Carmel we saw an elephant seal carcass that had washed up on the beach, and on another occasion we passed two wealthy teenage girls furtively snorting cocaine out of a makeup compact as the sun set over the waves.

When I think about Monterrey, I tend to remember those childhood trips or to think about giant kelp and playful otters; coral reefs don’t immediately spring to mind. But Stanford University biomineralization expert Brent Constantz is working to change that with a new demonstration plant in the Bay that works just like a coral reef … but that manufactures cement.

Image courtesy sophiarogge.blogspot.com

Though tiny, “corals are the master builders of the animal kingdom. Powered on plankton and their symbiotic algae, hard corals extract the carbon dissolved in seawater and turn it into their calcium carbonate skeletons” (Guy). These skeletons build up on each other on a massive scale over time, creating rich habitat for diverse sea life that reminds me of what happens when we build cities out of concrete.

Image courtesy Calera.com

Constantz saw the opportunity to learn from nature and developed a coral-inspired cement manufacturing process. Cement manufacturing is a massive source of carbon emissions: in fact, “the cement industry is responsible for 5% of global carbon emissions, with each ton of cement producing a ton of CO2” (Guy). Constantz’s company, Calera, aims to green the production of cement by “capturing flue gases from factories, running them through a saline solution, and using electricity to convert the gases into solids. For 542 million years, corals have been sequestering carbon dissolved in water” (Guy). Calera is looking to reduce the time scale for sequestering carbon dioxide gas that could be affecting our climate.

WU XING:

I have filed this coral-like material under Earth and Water; connect the dots!

Cited:

Earthsky.org “Making Cement the Way Coral Does: Out of Thin Air.” Fastcompany.com Accessed 12/08/11. URL.

Guy, Allison. “Growing Cement like Coral.” NextNature.com 05/12/11. Accessed 12/08/11. URL.

The grass is always greener – except when it doesn’t rain appreciably for three straight months, as was the case this summer where I live in Texas. Here, the grass was golden brown, parched, dessicated and crunchy like a stale sugar cookie or gauze belonging to a dried out ancient Egyptian mummy. As summer wore on, I found myself desperately squinting up at the blazing blue sky, searching in vain for the faintest hint of cloud formation. We were facing the kind of heat that makes standing on black pavement completely unbearable; the asphalt melts rubber shoe soles and causes low level leg hair to spontaneously combust. As I watched the tree leaves bake to brown and tumble end over end to the ground in defeat, I wished more than anything for rain.

Image courtesy http://howlinghooligan.blogspot.com

I imagine that in places like Seattle, or the Netherlands, where Frederik Molenschot and Susanne Happle developed a new water-activated concrete product they call Solid Poetry, people don’t stand around hoping for rain because the odds are good that it’s already falling from the sky. And now that it’s raining again in Texas, I can see many more applications for this innovative, delightful smart material. When dry, Solid Poetry appears dull and chalky – indistinguishable from standard concrete.  But just add water and suddenly hidden decorative floral and leaf patterns appear, lingering only as long as the moisture level at the surface of the concrete remains high.

Images courtesy www.studiomolen.nl

Happle came up with the idea while on a walk, where she observed leaves blow off of wet pavement leaving an inverted shadow image of lighter concrete behind. She writes:

“Whenever the weather changes the landscape transforms; the light becomes different and the whole atmosphere changes. All materials seem to alter. In my project I explore the possibilities for hidden design appearing as the environment changes. I applied techniques to enduring and solid materials as glass and concrete, so that natural processes like differences in temperature causing condense reveal patterns on windows. Rain uncovers decoration on a city square. The possible applications of solid poetry are various: either at home in the bathroom, in the garden, in saunas and dance clubs, where the humidity is high or public spaces like bus stops or pavements. All forms of solid poetry have in common that they change the whole setting; they are surprising and have a life of their own.”

If you’re like me, now that you’ve heard about Solid Poetry you’ll spend more than a few minutes doodling custom patterns for use in a dream bathroom.  But while custom and cast-in place patterns are possible with the system, the prefab repeating modules are what allows Solid Poetry to scale as a mass-produced, store-ready proposition ripe for commercial distribution. To learn more, treat yourself to this short video:

WU XING:

I am filing Solid Poetry under earth because it’s concrete and water because that’s the reason the concrete goes all magic and mystical.

Cited:

“Beautiful Concrete by Solid Poetry” Ronamag. 11/08/11. Accessed 11/29/11. URL.

Image courtesy newcritic.com

But yes, the day has dawned: TAKTL is a new ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) with seemingly “unlimited potential in the architecture, landscape and product design industries” (Source: TAKTL).  This new material is similar to GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) but since TAKTL has UHPC as a base, it outperforms GFRC in compressive, tensile, and flexural strength, and it can be cast in nearly any shape, texture, color, or pattern (Record).  This stuff is majestic. The last time I wrote a paragraph with that many acronyms in rapid succession I was putting together a report on the Works Progress Administration for my sixth grade history teacher.

Images courtesy TAKTL-LLC.com

The mix is proprietary, but it mostly incorporates familiar concrete ingredients. The real magic is in the matrix: the formulation was designed to “optimize the particle size of each material to ensure stronger chemical bonds and lower water absorption, yielding extremely high compressive, tensile and flexural strength. The resulting material exhibits a beautiful surface with integral pigment that stands up to water, salt and corrosive environmental contaminants. Further, TAKTL can be re-formulated for geographic markets to use materials available through local sources” (Source: TAKTL).

Image courtesy TAKTL-LLC.com

The company is based in Pennsylvania, but their approach to manufacturing is nothing short of progressive. The team at TAKTL have developed a mobile, modular manufacturing process that allows them to set up a facility close to any project in the world.  That makes it possible to source labor and materials locally – talk about shrinking your carbon footprint!  Look for installations of their products coming this fall.

WU XING:

I have filed TAKTL under earth because it’s concrete.

Cited:

“High Performance Concrete Gets a Makeover.” Architectural Record. May 2011. Page 69.

VergeLabs, an architecture and design practice based in the United Arab Emirates founded as a partnership between Ginger Krieg Dosier and Michael Dosier, brought some of that magic to concrete with their development of Glowcrete.

Image courtesy Vergelabs

The researchers used phosphorescent pigment in two ways to produce glowing concrete: they added the pigment to expansion cement, the pigment, when distributed unevenly, left a glowing trail that served as a record of the mixing process; and they also added the phosphorescent pigment to the concrete as aggregate. The even distribution of pigment in the second case creates a uniform distribution of light emission.

In each case, as the surface of the concrete weathers and erodes, new phosphorescent aggregate is exposed, which extends the lifespan of the luminescence (Source: Vergelabs).  I’d like to learn more about the phosphorescent pigment the researchers used – I’m not sure how long it lasts or whether it’s toxic (although I’d imagine the answers to those questions are: not very and yes).  That being acknowledged, I can so clearly imagine this material at the bottom of a swimming pool or fountain, or even on the underside of an unfinished concrete slab – pure magic.

WU XING:

I have filed glowcrete under Earth (concrete) and Fire (glowiness!)

Cited:

Dosier, Ginger Kreig and Michael. “Glowcrete.” Vergelabs Research in Architecture. 05/30/06. Accessed 06/03/11. URL.

Image by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

In Northern California, the brief periods between earthquakes are made lively by a counterpoint of alternating floods and wildfires. The floods lead to mudslides, and there isn’t much any material on the facade can do to prevent an entire building being carried down the hillside by the hill itself. The wildfires, however, delight in ingniting wood cladding, and it is in the fireproofing arena that a brick facade has the leg up. So what would you choose? A flexible material that resists damage in the event of an earthquake or a rigid material that cracks under shear stress but that stands up to fire?

The answer, of course, is yes – meaning that you’d choose a material that is both flexible AND fireproof. Reider, a family-owned Austrian concrete manufacturing company, is making just such a material at this very moment in its factories, which you have to imagine must be surrounded by edelweiss and roving melodious von Trap children.

Image courtesy Stylepark

FibreC is a fiberglass-reinforced concrete panel that can be used for outside facades as well as indoors. It’s a “thin-walled material with a pleasant feel and natural look” that is resilient and at the same time flexible, rendering it suitable for a wide range of practical applications (Stylepark). FibreC has been available in large panels for quite some time, and now it’s also being manufactured in the shape of thin slats. This new shape means that FibreC is a fireproof alternative to wooden panel cladding! Reider touts it as a sustainable material because it’s made of sand, cement, and glass fibers, and the manufacturing process is reportedly eco-friendly.  FibreC comes in a wide range of colors and a few different finishes:

Image courtesy Stylepark

FibreC was used by Architects Alan Dempsey and Alvin Huang, who won a competition to design a temporary, freestanding pavilion that was built in front of the Architectural Association school in London.  The high tensile strength of FibreC allowed the development of a “simple interlocking cross joint which is tightened by slightly bending each element as it is locked into consecutive cross elements. Consultation with the Fibre-C technical department in Austria has suggested that a flex of 15-20mm per metre can be applied without affecting the structural performance of the material. The appearance of small micro cracks on the surface is mitigated by using lighter material colours and a Ferro finish” (Dezeen).

Image Courtesy Loz Pycock

The pavilion was fabricated from curved profiles nested on standard 13mm flat sheets and cut with a water jet.  I think the effect is rather splendid, and it’s certainly not a fire hazard. Thanks to David Conover of StudioConover for sending me info on FibreC!

WU XING:

I filed FibreC under earth (because of its composition) and fire (because it’s fireproof).

Cited:

“Slab Format Thin Concrete.” Stylepark.com. 01/10/10. Accessed 02/07/11. URL.

“C Space Pavilion by Alan Dempsey and Alvin Huang.” Dezeen.com 11/04/07. Accessed 02/09/11. URL.

Joints are like an after-school program for cracks in concrete. If we fail to provide a place for cracks to occur safely, under supervision, and in aesthetically pleasing configurations, we as a society will be faced with complete anarchy in our walls and slabs.  This horrifying chaos could lead to unwed, underage cracks begetting more cracks and, possibly even more alarming, cracks on crack.

Sometimes, despite the provision of joints and reinforcing in concrete to resist tension, construction goes horribly wrong. Say the mix is off, or the wrong strength is used by mistake, or perhaps someone throws an empty can on the ground and it rolls into the formwork whereupon it gets cast into the underside of the slab, weakening it in a place where it ought to be strong. Or imagine if something were to explode unexpectedly, blasting a wall with forces it wasn’t designed to resist. Concrete is a pretty forgiving medium but there are limits. In any of these situations cracks can start to form that either weaken a structure or at the very least damage it aesthetically.

Image courtesy popsci.com

Until recently the solution to a lot of these crack problems was rehab – tearing out the offending concrete and recasting or patching it -usually an expensive proposition.  Sometimes people drip high-strength epoxies into the cracks hoping the glue will hold everything together, but this tactic engenders a new set of problems.  For example, if the glue is stronger than the concrete it puts a whole new set of stresses on the material.

Now there is another way. Researchers at the University of Newcastle in the UK have invented a bio-based material that patches up the cracks in concrete structures, restoring buildings damaged by seismic events or that have deteriorated over time.  They’ve “custom-designed a bacteria to burrow deep into the cracks in concrete where they produce a mix of calcium carbonate and a special bacteria glue that hardens to the same strength of the surrounding concrete” (Dillow).  That’s right, people.  Bacteria glue to the rescue!

Image courtesy en.citizendium.org

“BacillaFilla,” as the researchers call it, is a genetically modified version of Bacillus subtilis.  Apparently Bacillus subtilis (what a great name for a bacteria by the way – it sounds unobtrusive and subtle and as though it’s found below tiles) is everywhere around us and easily encountered in common soil.  The Newcastle researchers “have tweaked its genetic properties such that it only begins to germinate when it comes in contact with the highly-specific pH of concrete. Once the cells germinate, they are programmed to crawl as deep as they can into cracks in the concrete, where quorum sensing lets them know when enough bacteria have accumulated” (Dillow).

When the bacteria reach the deepest part of the crack and their spidey sense tells them they’ve reached an appropriate population size, they start to morph.  The cells begin to develop bacterial filaments, to produce calcium carbonate, and to “secrete a kind of bacterial glue that binds everything together. Once hardened, the bacteria is essentially as strong as the concrete itself, restoring structural strength and adding life to the surrounding concrete.  The bacteria also contains a self-destruct gene that keeps it from wildly proliferating away from its concrete target, because a runaway patch of bacterial concrete that continued to grow despite all efforts to stop it would be somewhat annoying” (Dillow).  So unlike the brute force approach of tearing out an entire zone of concrete, or the “coat everything with epoxy and cross your fingers” route, BacillaFilla has a kind of emergent intelligence that lets it assess and repair each unique crack. 

BacillaFilla could be used to improve the longevity of concrete structures, which means we’d need to build fewer of them.  That’s bad news for architects but good news for the planet because a lot of energy goes into the production of new concrete.  The material might also be deployed where earthquakes have damaged buildings, reducing the number of structures that would need to be torn down.  I also wonder if the bacteria could be tweaked so as to first build concrete structures and then maintain them over time? 

WU XING:

I’m filing BacillaFilla under earth because they’re living in the soil and etc.

Cited:

Dillow, Clay. “Bacteria Can Fill Cracks in Aging Concrete.” Popsci.com. 11/16/10.  Accessed 11/30/10.  URL.

Image courtesy Litracon.hu

LUCEM

LUCEM was developed by a German company called robatex GmbH.  I have no earthly idea what any of that stands for – except that the “tex” aspect may relate more to textiles than to chips and salsa, which is maybe a little bit disappointing.  Their products and manufacturing processes are patent-pending and they won’t tell me about them, but as a consolation they offer additional consulting services about textiles and concrete.  Here’s what else you can get (according to their product information): a massive light transmitting concrete element that becomes translucent due to the incorporation of “high quality optical fibres” when placed in front of a natural and/or artifical light source.  This may produce a “fascinating atmosphere of light & shadows as well as colours and shapes” (Source: LUCEM).  The product is fire-resistant (always nice) and 100% recyclable.  In some cases it is also UV-resistant.  You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking … FEATURE WALL!

Image courtesy LUCEM.de

Litracon

It’s probably not a good idea for another architect to be spreading the word about a “building in a bag” developed by architects and Concrete Canvas co-founders Peter Brewin and William Crawford, but it’s just such a clever and useful concept that I can’t keep it to myself.  Besides, they’re not very pretty (the buildings – I haven’t laid eyes on Peter Brewin or William Crawford) so I don’t think we’ll be officing or living in Concrete Canvas Shelters except under the most extreme circumstances:  the local design review board starts experimenting with peyote for example, or suddenly people only want buildings that look like trilobytes.

Image courtesy MaterialConneXion.com

 Image courtesy theguardian.co/uk

So what makes a 54 square-meter, “rapidly deployable hardened shelter that requires only air and water for construction” possible?  You’re probably thinking, “magic,” but in this case it’s a “groundbreaking, cement-impregnated flexible fabric known as Concrete Cloth” (Zingaro).  This stuff is fire-proof, waterproof, moldable, drapeable, durable and all around crazy-useful.  Concrete cloth is bonded to the outer surface of a plastic inner lining to create the structures.  When inflated, these materials constitute a surface optimized for compressive loading; thin-walled concrete structures are consequently both strong and lightweight.  The entire Concrete Canvas Structure (CCS) can be inflated by two untrained people in under an hour.  Twenty-four hours are required to cure the concrete but after that your CCS is ready for up to ten years of use (Source: Concrete Canvas). 

  

WU XING:

Concrete cloth is earthy and utilitarian.  It’s fireproof and waterproof.  It’s also thin and flexible – although I would guess it is not at its best in tension.  I’ve placed it in the earth and water categories although it could also be considered metal (see photo above) because it holds water.  What do you think?

Cited:
Zingaro, Alison. “Medium award for material of the year” Material ConneXion.  Accessed 01/28/10.  URL.

*I can’t properly attribute this statement and you may choose to assume that I made it up.