MATERIALS

Living inside a mushroom, a pig or a plastic bottle?

Unusual materials with a promising future

Materialization, one of the most important aspects in an architectural project. Materialization of the loadbearing structure or the façade is one of the things that can make your project extraordinary. But the wrong use of a specific material can also downgrade your whole design. However, as an architecture student you can only learn so much about materials. Which mostly limits us to the use of common materials like wood, steel and concrete for the loadbearing structure and bricks and glass for the façade. Yet, there are way more interesting materials for grabs: especially in this century of innovation. In this article four innovative materials are discussed. In vitro meat In the future you might be living inside of a pig. This might sound weird but no worries for the vegetarians and vegans amongst us: no animals were harmed in the process of making a meat home. Meat cells are grown in laboratories for the buildings. Until today only scale models have been made but the concept gives an insight of how meat cells could replace traditional building materials. The cells are 3D printed in all sorts of shapes. Sodium Benzonate is added for the preservation but also to kill yeast, bacteria and fungi. This makes the meat last for a fairly long time. The sight of the scale models isn’t very attractive but the idea itself is quite interesting. Envision walls made from tissue, bones and skin which will replace insulation and where muscles function as windows which can open and close by themselves.

Mushroom-brick The organic biodegradable bricks consist of farm waste and a fungus which grows in a brick-shaped mold. The bricks are made of corn stalks and the fungus makes sure the corn stalks stay together. Corn stalk doesn’t have another function otherwise and would just go to waste, which makes the bricks very sustainable. The bricks are grown in five days and can then be stacked to create a structure. One brick can carry the weight of multiple cars. The fabrication of the bricks leaves no waste, no input of energy is required and there are no carbon emissions. After using the bricks, they can be composted and can be turned into fertilizer. For now, the bricks haven’t been used in big architectural projects. However, MoMa in New York did construct three interwoven towers from the bricks. It’s not likely that the mushroom bricks will replace steel or concrete anytime soon, but the towers showed that there might be a future.

Cardboard Cardboard, everyone has heard of it but most of us see it as a useless material which you throw away as soon as you take your purchased item out of the box. However, cardboard can be used for more useful purposes including architectural purposes. For example, after the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand the cathedral was destroyed. Yet a place was needed for the victims to be honored. Shigura Ban came with the idea to create a church with cardboard as main material. The church is constructed from cardboard tubes which are coated with a waterproof and a flame-retardant material. The cardboard tubes support the polycarbonate roof. The church has a life span of 50 years and will replace the cathedral until a new cathedral emerges. A big plus of the structure is that the cardboard is not likely to be affected in case of another earthquake. Another benefit was that within a month after the earthquake the church was ready to be used. Used plastic bottles Like cardboard everyone uses plastic bottles. Nevertheless, plastic bottles and all other plastics are a huge environmental issue. A lot of the plastic isn’t recyclable and ends up in landfills or even worse: in the ocean. However, it could serve a better cause. Studio Klimoski Chang Architects used 53.780 plastic bottles to create a pavilion: 53.780 is the exact number of plastic bottles that is thrown away every hour in New York. The used bottles were collected from offices, schools and businesses throughout the course of a few months. Each bottle is filled with a different amount of water and blue coloring. The exterior is completely made out of big plastic jugs. The pavilion is shaped like a cloud and has the fitting name: Heads in the Clouds. It’s a place where New Yorkers can put their head in the clouds and rest in a chaotic city. The pavilion not only stands for all the plastic bottles that are thrown each day but also hopes to inspire others to create structures with used products or plastic bottles.

Dare to experiment with unknown materials and try to do your own research instead of always falling back to the usual materials. //

1 - In vitro meat: http://www.terreform.org/projects_habitat_meat. html 2 - Mushroom brick: https://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/01/tower-ofgrown-bio-bricks-by-the-living-opens-at-moma-ps1-gallery/

- Kushner, M. (2016). De toekomst van architectuur in 100 gebouwen. Amsterdam, Nederland: Amsterdam University Press. -https://www.archdaily.com/521266/hy-fi-the-organic-mushroombrick-tower-opens-at-moma-s-ps1-courtyard -http://www.terreform.org/projects_habitat_meat.html - https://www.archdaily.com/413224/shigeru-ban-completes-cardboard-cathedral-in-new-zealand -https://www.archdaily.com/415655/head-in-the-clouds-pavilionopens-in-nyc SOURCES