Students from the Institute for Advanced Architecture, in Barcelona, Spain, are developing a new type of building that can grow larger or smaller based on external stimuli such as heat, humidity and light.
The project, called Translated Geometries, uses a composite material known as Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs) that can deform and return to its original state when activated by these environmental cues. A prototype building developed by the team grows larger as the temperature rises then shrinks to original size when the temperature falls.
SMPs can be used to create joints that can be fitted between such materials as plywood. When heat is added the joint can then expand, causing the building to grow up to four times its original footprint.
How It Works
Exposing SMP to heat above 140 degrees F creates a flexibility in the material that allows it to undergo geometric deformations. The mateiral then cools into its new rigid form. When more heat is applied, the material returns to its original memory state.
The building created by the students was inspired by the Japanese art of origami. As heat is applied to the SMP, the structure begins to twitch then unfolds the way a flower will open up, according to one of the students, Ramin Shambayati.
“You can reused the same material intelligence embedded in the building to help with different scenarios or needs,” Shimbayati told Wired magazine.
What these types of buildings could be used for is something that is still being considered. So how could this principle be applied to practical architecture?
“That depends on what you consider architecture,” Shambayati said. “Maybe your apartment buildings won’t be transitioning quite yet, but something like pavilion? I don’t think that’s too far fetched.”
Many Possible Applications
Other possibilities for these types of 21st Century building materials include remote structures such as oil drilling rigs or research facilities in the Arctic or Antarctic. Or even extra-terrestrial structures such as on the Moon or for use in space travel. Shape-shifting structures may even have applications in green energy production.
Still, there are a lot of bugs that need to be worked out before this technology can actually be used in a real building. One of the biggest concerns is the amount of stress all that turning and twisting would put on the materials that compose the structure.
“Someone came up with the term ‘material empathy’,” Shambayati said. “They said they felt bad for the material and all the stress we were giving it.”
The other students working on the Translated Geometries project are Ece Tankal and Efilena Baseta.
The concept of using temperature or other outside influences to change the shape of a structure is not new. In fact, a similar shape-shifting structure made of foam and wax is being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But that application is for robotics, not structures that will be occupied by people.