The following story was all over my news feed
last week so I thought I’d break it down here for our readers: Researches at
Virgina Tech have invented a new material with several interesting
characteristics, combining stiffness, strength, low-weight, and high
flexibility. These desirable characteristics are normally associated with the
aerospace industry but are easily transferred when used architecturally. The
notable behaviour results from the material reacting hierarchically depending
on the forces applied. Nano-scale materials engineering allowed designers to
print the material in such a way that regions of the lattice react differently
depending on how the piece is intended to resist applied forces. Nature has
already provided us with a versatile material that mirrors this behaviour in
bone. Here 3D printing is really key to the development of this metallic
metamaterial since rarely in the past have human-made materials allowed for
such fine control of the nano- and macro-scale structure. The article goes on
to stress that one of the major benefits of this process is its scalability.
One of the major hurdles in the development of graphene was the fabrication of
pieces useful on a human scale. Researches are confident this process can
delivery much larger pieces. Will this a material help build the perfect
architecture of the future?
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