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.

I resent the noise of the printer, printer jams, shaking the toner cartridge, the harsh chemicals involved, and the amount of electricity it takes to print on a sheet of paper. I resent those things with the heat of a thousand suns.

But … just when I believed that I had calcified in my negative stance on all forms of printing, I learned that MIT engineers recently revealed a process they’ve developed to produce printed solar cells.  Their flexible cells can be printed on paper or fabric and folded over 1,000 times without losing efficiency, and they’re not energy-intensive to produce!  I was cautiously optimistic: maybe, I thought, printing doesn’t have to be completely evil?

Photos: Patrick Gillooly/MIT

The creation of typical solar cells involves exposing substrates to intense chemicals and high temperatures, which necessitates a whole lotta energy consumption.  MIT’s new fancy solar cells “are formed by placing five layers of material onto  a single sheet of  paper in successive passes. A mask is utilized to form the cell patterns, and  the entire printing process is done in a vacuum chamber” (Singh).  Fabric and paper substrates weigh less than the glass and other heavy backing materials that are typically used, and researchers think that they’re well on the way to developing scalable cells for use in photovoltaic arrays.

So here’s what I’ll say: the day my office printer can power itself by printing out solar cells is the day I will let go of these negative emotions and learn to forgive.

Click  here to see the technology in action (via Inhabitat).

WU XING:

I have filed MIT’s solar cells under water (because of the gentle process) and wood (because they’re flexible and can be printed on paper). And also, privately, under awesome.

Cited:

Singh, Timon. “MIT Unveils Flexible Solar Cells Printed on Paper.” Inhabitat.com 07/11/11. Accessed 07/12/11. URL.

Image courtesy ursulinesmsj.org

But since there’s no cake, I’m going to write about a new metal panel product coated with, you guessed it: titanium dioxide.  Bonding this chemical to various materials is a growing trend in green building (read about ceramic tiles coated with TiO₂ here) because it’s thought to break down organic matter, SOx (sulphur oxides), and NOx (nitrogen oxides) – the primary component of smog.

Image courtesy ecoclean.com

Alcoa Architectural products has developed a process of applying a titanium dioxide coating called “EcoClean” (the green product naming equivalent of SuperAwesomeAmazingPerfectSauce) to the pre-painted aluminum surface of their Reynobond aluminum panels. As a consequence of the TiO₂ coating, the panels are self-cleaning and break down everything from bird droppings to harmful pollutants.

Image courtesy ecoclean.com

The panels actively remove pollutants from the air in the presence of water and sunlight.  Free radicals generated by the titanium dioxide oxidize the NOx molecules and render them harmless.  Rain washes all said harmless dirt and crud right off the panels, meaning lower maintenance costs for owners and a cleaner image for the building over time (architect is happy! yay!).

Image courtesy ecoclean.com

According to the product literature, installing TiO₂ coated panels “on your building can have approximately enough cleansing power to offset the smog created by the pollution output of four cars every day, which is the approximate air cleansing power of 80 trees every day” (Source: Ecoclean.com).

WU XING:

I am filing this under metal because of the aluminum panels and water because it’s a necessary ingredient for the process to work.

Similar issues arise in the making of structural materials such as metals and alloys. The materials properties are set once and for all during production. This forces engineers to make compromises in the selection of the mechanical properties of a material. Greater strength is inevitably accompanied by increased brittleness and a reduction of the damage tolerance.”

Image courtesy Technical University of Hamburg and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht

Jörg Weißmüller, a materials scientist at both the Technical University of Hamburg and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht, and his team wondered if you could switch METALS back and forth between different degrees of firmness.  They placed precious metals (gold, platinum, what have you) in an acid bath. The acid corroded the metals, creating teensy tiny holes and channels all through the material, which they subsequently filled with a conductive liquid (dilute acid or saline solution).

Image courtesy Technical University of Hamburg and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht

Ions dissolved in the conductive liquid influence the surface atoms of the metal, withdrawing or adding electrons to the metal’s surface atoms depending on the charge of the liquid.  Controlled changes in the atomic configuration can double the strength of the metallic materials, or make it weaker and more damage tolerant (Dillow).  The union of metal and water allows the researchers to alter the properties of the material at the touch of a button – an amazing breakthrough!

These “research findings could, for example, make future intelligent materials with the ability of self healing, smoothing out flaws autonomously….  Specific applications are still a matter for the future. However, researchers are already thinking ahead. In principle, the material can create electric signals spontaneously and selectively, so as to strengthen the matter in regions of local stress concentration. Damage, for instance in the form of cracks, could thereby be prevented or even healed. This has brought scientists a great step closer to their objective of ‘intelligent’ high performance materials.” (Source: Eurekalert). Not to mention it would make for a pretty sweet Iron Man suit… I’m just saying.

WU XING:
Filed under Metal and Water.

Cited:

Dillow, Clay. “New Nanometal Changes from Hard to Soft at the Flip of a Switch.” Popsci.com. 06/08/11. Accessed 06/09/11. URL.

“Hard or Soft: at the Touch of a Button.” Public release date: 6-Jun-2011. via Eurekalurt URL.

Have you met TED?

No, I’m not playing wingman for Ted Mosby.  TED is a conference during which exceedingly smart, skillful people present their work in 20 minutes or less.  The presentations are published on the Internets and made available to the world at large for the low price of $free.99.  TED talks are an amazing source of inspiration and information – and some of them feature innovative materials! Therefore, in this post I present three TED talks that relate in some way to the content on ARCHITERIALS:

 1. Thomas Thwaites: How I built a Toaster from Scratch – TED Salon London, 2010.

“It takes an entire civilization to build a toaster. Designer Thomas Thwaites found out the hard way, by attempting to build one from scratch: mining ore for steel, deriving plastic from oil … it’s frankly amazing he got as far as he got. A parable of our interconnected society, for designers and consumers alike.”

This talk resonated for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve been trying to make plastic at home and it’s quite difficult. You can see the results of some of my early experiments here on flickr.

2. Kate Orff: Reviving New York’s Rivers – with Oysters! TED women, 2010.

“Architect Kate Orff sees the oyster as an agent of urban change. Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean — thus driving even more innovation in “oyster-tecture.” Orff shares her vision for an urban landscape that links nature and humanity for mutual benefit.”

Oysters are amazing creatures. Laste year I wrote about the adhesive they use to adhere themselves to this and that underwater object (read the post here) and I will admit that since the time of that writing I ate one. That’s right people – I ate an oyster (cooked and covered with butter and cheese). I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it, but then again is there anything that doesn’t taste pretty good when coated in butter and cheese? On second thought, don’t answer that.

3. Eben Bayer: Are Mushrooms the New Plastic? TED global, 2010.

“Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens — and the environment.”

I also wrote about mushrooms as a building material/packing material, and it’s nice to be able to learn about the product from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Not that Eben Bayer is in any way like a horse (it’s a metaphor). And, in case you wondered, I have not voluntarily eaten mushrooms since I wrote about how they are being used as a packing material.

Hope you enjoyed these talks as much as I did – and if you stumble across any other videos that are materials-centric please let me know in the comments or send me an email.

ARCHITERIALS is a year old now, and like most healthy, well-adjusted one-year-olds it needs to be changed constantly, crawls all over my apartment, and makes strange burbling noises.  No, really – it does.  It’s terrifying.

Over the past year I’ve profiled approximately 65 materials and learned about blogging, bacteria, and biscuits, although I must confess that the biscuts were a side project.  A delicious, buttery side project.  Anyhow, to celebrate the birthday of ARCHITERIALS and the fact that the tagline “Investigating architectural materials since 2010” has finally attained temporal legitimacy, I’ve compiled for this, the 10th day of January,  a list of 10 materials from 2010 that are generally awesome.  I’ve also summarized the awesomeness of each material in a brief paragraph, and I’ve tried to frame each one as part of a larger, sort of big-picture trend in materials science that I’m studying.  Should you click on the links and read the detailed posts about each material for more information? Definitely. 

Finally, thank you so much to those who’ve submitted information, followed, liked, and posted photos over the past year, I appreciate it more than you can imagine!  Keep the materials coming and do tell your friends if your friends seem like people who might be interested in ARCHITERIALS.

Ten Awesome Materials from 2010 and Reasons They are Awesome:

1.  Materials that can be deployed in disasters or used to improve living conditions:  Concrete Cloth

Concrete cloth is a concrete-impregnated fabric that is fire-proof, waterproof, moldable, drapeable, durable and generally fantastic.  Applications include: gabion reinforcement, sandbag defenses, ground surfacing/dust suppression, ditch lining, landing surfaces, formwork, spill containment and landfill lining, waterproofing, building cladding, boat ramps, erosion control, roof repair, water and septic tanks.  Concrete cloth solves problems you don’t even know you have, although nothing can repair your terrible relationship with your mother-in-law.   

2.  Sustainable, non-toxic materials:  Reclaimed Wood and Agricultural Fiber Panels

Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles and Kirei Wheatboard made from the non-food portions (stalks and husks) of sorghum, coconut, and wheat plants.  The agricultural fiber that’s not sold by farmers for use in the manufacture of Kirei board takes up space in landfills or gets burned up and pollutes the air – therefore repurposing it cuts down on that sort of thing.  Sustainable building materials make the planet happy, and a happy planet makes for happy people. 

3.  Biodegradable materials:  Arbofoam

As it turns out, lignin can be transformed into a renewable plastic if it’s combined with resins, flax and other natural fibers. The resulting bio-plastic, called Arboform, can be thermoformed, foamed, or molded via injection machines.  It’s durable and super-precise when it’s cast, and it degrades similar to wood into water, humus, and carbon dioxide. It’s very cool stuff indeed and I’d love it if someone would send me information about a project where it’s been used.  Biodegradable materials cut down on landfill and reduce environmental pollution. 

4.  Thermoplastic/thermoelastic/thermoformed/thermo-etcetera materials:  Chemical Velcro

How could you not get excited about an adhesive 10 times stickier than Velcro and the reusable gecko-inspired glues that many research groups have been trying to perfect that comes apart when heated??!  I have been trying without success to get my hands on some of this to build demountable partition walls for my tiny apartment, and I’m not giving up.  Materials that respond to changes in temperature by changing their behavior or attributes will find widespread application in the future. 

5.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves:  Liquid Glass

Liquid glass a coating that takes advantages of the unique properties of materials at nanoscale.  It is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids.  According to manufacturers, you can spray liquid glass on everything from wood to seeds to your sneakers.  It could someday replace all the toxic cleaning products you currently use to tidy and disinfect, and it reportedly costs about 8 dollars.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves cut down on the need for toxic chemicals and pollutants. 

6.  Materials that emit light efficiently:   White LED Lights

White LED lights emit more light than a typical 20-watt fluorescent bulb, as well as more light for a given amount of power. With these improvements, the new LEDs can replace traditional fluorescent bulbs for all general lighting applications, and also be used for automobile headlights and LCD backlighting.  Shedding light on any given subject has never been more efficient.  As we transition to alternative forms of energy we are also looking for materials that emit light without using much energy in the first place.

7.  Nanomaterials:  Gold Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles can be used to further increase the efficiency of LED lights.  Researchers have implanted the particles in the leaves of aquatic plants, causing the leaves to emit red light.  Theoretically, the light produced by the leaves could cause their chloroplasts to conduct photosynthesis, meaning that no additional energy source would be needed to power the process.  In fact, the leaves would actually work overtime, absorbing CO₂ at night.  Nanomaterials allow us to intervene in processes like photosynthesis with a previously unheard-of degree of delicacy.

8.  Materials that augment already useful material properties:  Bendywood 

Bendywood is wood that has been pre-compressed so that it can be easily bent by hand.  The tension that forms on the outside of a bend merely returns the plant cells to their former shape, and the wood doesn’t break.  The material is delightfully flexible and pliable.  Bendywood was developed for indoor uses such as furniture, handrails, or curved mouldings, and it shows enormous promise.  Materials like Bendywood amplify the appealing properties of familiar materials so that it’s even easier to use them to our benefit.

9.  Bio-based materials:  Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)

At the intersection of biology and solar tech, there are jellyfish that produce green fluorescent protein (GFP).  Dripping GFP onto a silicon dioxide substrate between two electrodes causes it to work itself into strands, creating a circuit that absorbs photons and emits electrons in the presence of ultraviolet light.  The electron current (aka electricity) can then be used to power your hairdryer.  I’m completely fascinated by materials that help us to blur the boundaries between biological and man-made machines.

10.  Materials that repair themselves:  Bacilla Filla

Bacilla Filla is a material that patches up the cracks in concrete structures, restoring buildings damaged by seismic events or that have deteriorated over time.  Custom-designed bacteria burrows 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.  Materials that can detect their own flaws and damage and repair themselves will revolutionize the way we build and think about building materials in the future.

Image courtesy www.virginmedia.com

Installing blast-resistant glass in buildings that are potential targets of attacks or in regions prone to severe weather can save lives but unfortunately, most blast-resistant glass cannot be placed in a regular window frame. The upshot is that it’s incredibly difficult – not to say prohibitively expensive – to replace standard glass windows in most structures (Verrico).  So what can ordinary people who are not now and probably never will be Pope do to avoid being on the receiving end of jagged shards of glass flying through the air as a result of high winds or explosions

Image courtesy University of Missouri

A team of engineers from the University of Missouri and the University of Sydney in Australia think the answer is to install a “blast-resistant glass that is lighter, thinner, and colorless, yet tough enough to withstand the force of an explosion, earthquake, or hurricanes winds” (Verrico).  In contrast with today’s blast-resistant windows, which are made of pure polymer layers, their design consists of a plastic composite that has an interlayer of polymer reinforced with glass fibers.  And most exciting, it’s only a quarter-inch thick.

Image courtesy University of Missouri

So let’s talk about this interlayer for a minute.  Long glass fibers 15 to 25 micrometers in diameter (about half the thickness of a typical human hair) are woven together to form a kind of glass cloth, which is then soaked with liquid plastic and bonded with adhesive.   The small size of the glass fibers reduces the incidence of defects and cracking in the glass.   The fibers also provide reinforcing for the polymer matrix used to bind them together.  The glass fibers, plastic, and the adhesive that bond the interlayer to two thin sheets of glass on either side are all transparent to visible light.

Image courtesy University of Missouri

It is expected that the blast-resistant glass will “slip easily into standard commercial window frames, making it much more practical and cost-efficient to install…. The goal is to create blast-resistant panes as large as 48 by 66 inches (he standard General Services Administration window size for qualification blast testing) that can still be cost-effective. While dependent on results from upcoming tests, [the] glass could become commercially available in three to four years” (Verrico).  I can see this type of glass being mandated in the future in places like Florida and the other Gulf Coast states, and for government buildings all over the world.  And maybe it one day lightweight, blast-resistant glass will even be used to increase the fuel efficiency of the Popemobile?

WU XING:

I’ve filed thin, blast-resistant glass under water, fire, and wood because it’s a composite and it just feels right.

Cited:

Verrico, John. “A New Kind of Blast-Resistant Glass.” Press Release. US Department of Homeland Security – Science and Technology. 12/9/10. Accessed 1/4/11.  URL.

Water.  The universal solvent. H₂O.

It’s refreshing and highly necessary, but water in the wrong place at the wrong time can cause catastrophic problems in buildings.  It’s easy to envision the kind of damage inflicted by a flood, or by ten feet of snow on a roof designed to support six, or even by corrosion caused by salty ocean water at the seashore.  But the reason we wrap our buildings in fancy hi-tech paper and smear them with liquid waterproofing has more to do with the insidious effects of water vapor and intra-wall condensation.  I personally do not enjoy intra-wall condensation, but I’m told that mold does.

It’s impossible to stop water vapor moving though a building, not to mention the fact that we actively invite liquid water inside because we want to be able to turn on sinks and sip delicately at water fountains.  But I didn’t believe that an architect would go out of his way extend a handwritten invitation complete with SASE for RSVP to water vapor begging it to come inside a building, until I saw the evidence with my own eyes.

Images courtesy www.gizmodo.com

Architect Tetsuo Kondo worked with climate engineering company Transsolar to create Cloudscapes, an amorphous artificial cloud trapped inside the Corderie, a 319-meters long space once used to make ropes and cables for the Italian navy.  The Corderie has been appropriated for use by the Venice Biennale, an international exhibition of the arts and architecture (Diaz).  The Biennale runs through November 21, 2010, so if you’re in Venice I highly recommend checking it out!

Image courtesy www.we-make-money-not-art.com

But to get back to the cloud, Transsolar designed a system wherein three layers of air at different humidity and temperature points were pumped into the massive space.  The cloud forms in a humid layer of air sandwiched between dry air at two different temperatures; there’s cool dry air at the bottom, then the hot humid cloud layer, and then hot dry air at the top (Regine).  Kondo’s installation treats a cloud like a building material, using it to frame space and filter light.

“Visitors can experience the cloud from below, within, and above as they climb up 4.3 meter high helical ramp erected in the center of the room. The cloud is based on the physical phenomenon of saturated air, condensation droplets floating in the space and condensation seeds. The atmospheres above and below the cloud have different qualities of light, temperature, and humidity, separating the spaces by a filter effect. The cloud can be touched, and it can be felt as different microclimatic conditions coincide” (Regine).

Image courtesy www.gizmodo.com

Cloudscapes reminds me of other projects that take advantage of the unique properties of water, such as ice hotels.  And it’s good to remember that the precise temperature and humidity controls that allowed Transsolar to engineer a cloud could probably also be reconfigured to remove unwanted cloudiness in other situations!

Check out the video:

WU XING:

Water. Natch.

Cited:

Diaz, Jesus.  “There is a Real Cloud Trapped Inside this Building.” Gizmodo. 09/21/10.  Accessed 11/11/10.  URL.

Regine.  “Cloudscapes by Transsolar + Tetsuo Kondo” We Make Money Not Art. 09/20/10.  Accessed 11/11/10.  URL.

I bring this up because tasting good (to other people, at least) is a positive characteristic of oysters.  Another positive trait is their uncanny ability to filter dirty nastiness out of rivers and bays, clarifying the water in which they dwell alongside myriad other creatures.  But from an architect’s standpoint, the most superlative characteristic of an oyster has to be its ability to stick itself to fellow oysters and riverbeds, enabling the formation of complex, long-lasting reefs.  These large oyster accumulations provide habitat for other species and protect the coastline from the ravages of storms.  And until recently, human beings had no clear idea exactly how oysters accrete to one another.

Image courtesy www.seattlemet.com

Image courtesy www.climateshift.org

At Purdue University, a research team has conducted experiments to discover the unique properties and composition of oyster cement, a “biomineralized adhesive material for aggregating into large communities.  This cement is an organic-inorganc hybrid and differs from the surrounding shells by displaying an alternate CaCO₃ crystal form, a cross-linked organic matrix, and an elevated protein content … the high inorganic content is exclusive to oysters” (Burkett et al).  If your eyes began to cross while reading the previous quote, have someone slap you on the back, have a shot of espresso, and stay with me. 

Image copyright Burkett, et al. Department of Chemistry and School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University

The researchers cut small sections through oyster shells  that had attached to each other via a small band of gray material that was still visible between the shells.  They pulverized samples of the outer shell, the gray material (oyster cement) and the inner shell of the oysters, and subjected each type of powder to various tests.  They dehydrated it, they treated it with acid, and they used Infrared (IR) spectroscopy among other means to determine that, in fact, the inner shell and outer shell of the oysters were compositionally distinct from the oyster cement.  Further, “the researchers were able to determine that the adhesive contained almost five times the amount of protein than what is found in the shell, as well as both iron and highly oxidized, cross-linked proteins” (Materials Technology).  Aaaand boom goes the dynamite!

What this means is that the oyster adhesive is more inorganic than your typical hydrated, organic glue-like material produced by mussels and barnacles (which are, admittedly, quite strong).  Those adhesives are composed mainly of proteins whereas oyster adhesive consists of about 90 percent calcium carbonate (chalk).  When I looked into calcium carbonate on the interwebs, I found out that the substance is crazy commonplace all over the globe – it’s found in all kinds of shells, most rocks, and even snails. 

It’s thought by the Purdue research team that what makes the oyster cement so effective is the interaction between the calcium carbonate and the small amount of protein that binds everything together.  They’re planning to “investigate the interaction of the different components within oyster cement and use this information for developing new synthetic materials” (Materials Technology).   If they can unravel the inner workings of oyster cement they’ll be able to “provide blueprints for the design of biomimetic materials, aid development of adhesion-inhibiting antifouling surfaces, and illustrate the workings of healthy ecosystems” (Burkett et al).  It’s exciting to think that we could be on our way to developing adhesives for use in medicine and construction that set and hold in wet environments.

*Do oysters even have eyes?? Gross.

Image courtesy www.content.cdlib.org

WU XING:

I am filing oyster cement under water (heh – get it!) and also in the earth category because you can basically make land if you have enough oysters.  The Purdue paper mentioned that some reef structures are “tens of meters deep and several square kilometers in area” (Burkett et al).

Cited:

Burkett, Jeremy R., Lauren M. Hight, Paul Kenny, and Jonathan J. Wilker. “Oysters Produce and Organic-Inorganic Adhesive for Intertidal Reef Construction.”  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010. Volume 132, pages 12531-12533.

“Oysters Offer Clues to New Adhesive Materials” Materials Technology @ TMS. 09/23/10.  Accessed 10/05/10.  URL.