Glass, steel, concrete, natural and reclaimed wood, and bamboo cork are widely used in buildings constructed in the contemporary architectural style. These materials allow architects to create structures that are strong, durable, lightweight, and need less maintenance.
The materials used in contemporary architecture are typically raw and natural materials like wood, concrete, metal, and glass. Simple and ordinary materials compared to the fancier and rarer materials like marble favored by more decorative architectural styles.
Aerogel Insulation
Whether it’s climate change or simply daunting energy bills, nearly everyone is demanding more efficient, greener new buildings.
Insulation is therefore a hot topic, especially when it comes to aerogel — not only one of the lightest materials available, but also one of the highest insulators (it also held 13 other Guinness World Records in 2011.) O.
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Nanomaterials
Nanotechnology is pushing materials science beyond the limits of what once seemed impossible.
When combined with ultra-high-strength concrete, nanomaterials such as Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) create a material so strong in both tension and compression that steel rebar is no longer needed in construction, therefore expediting the building process.
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Self-Healing Concrete
The greatest downfall of concrete — the world’s most widely used building material — is unavoidable cracking caused by exposure to water and chemicals.
Butrecent developments by a team in the Netherlands extends the life of this popular material by infusing concrete with bacterial spores that patch up cracks when water seeps through.
This amazing i.
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Slippery Surfaces
Stopping the spread of disease in a confined space such as a hospital is no easy task, involving continuous disinfecting and even the occasional architectural reorganization.
But now a team from Harvard is investigating an alternativethat would produce a “slippery liquid-infused porous surface” (SLIP) that would let bacteria slip right off.
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Solar Panel Innovations
Nanotechnology could also greatly improve the efficiency of solar panels, making it possible to embed a single panel with a huge array of individual solar cells.
This would greatly reduce the cost of the technology, finally making solar energy a viable alternative to fossil fuel.
Other explorations in making solar energy cheaper include dye-sensiti.
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Sweating Rooftops
Though the idea of a “sweaty” building sounds rather … unpleasant … this new materialfrom researchers at ETH-Zurich that aims to make your building perspire is anything but.
The rooftop material absorbs water when it rains and only releases it when the heat is raised to a certain temperature.
The resulting evaporation will in turn keep the house co.
Movement in contemporary architecture
Complementary architecture is a movement in contemporary architecture promoting architectural cleanup-needed-content style=color:#595959;border:1px solid #DDD>practice rooted in comprehensive understanding of context, aiming to contribute to the environment in such a way as to continue and improve or emphasise its preexisting qualities.
Indispensable features of complementary architecture include sustainability, altruism, contextualism, endemism and continuity of specific regional design language.
