All posts in Components

May

Producing Sustainable Solar Panels Without Rare Materials

Categories: Buildings, Components

by Forum for the Future

The energy that comes out of solar panels is renewable, but what about the panels themselves? Not so much - today’s leading solar panels owe their high sunlight-to-electricity conversion rates to the use of rare elements. The pressure is on to find a way of making solar power even more sustainable. Read more

Feb

‘Bioconcrete’ Uses Bacteria to Heal Itself

Categories: Buildings, Components, Europe, UK

Tags: delft

Comments: 1

by Forum for the Future

No product evokes a sense of solidity and sturdiness the way concrete does. However, the tiniest of cracks will inevitably lead to structural degradation, leakages and costly repairs. It is precisely this problem that two Dutch researchers from Delft Technical University have been working on. Read more

Dec

Building for a Changing Climate

Categories: Buildings, Components, UK

Comments: No

by Forum for the Future

Changing temperatures will affect weather patterns, and in turn create more extreme weather events and knock-on impacts for, well, everything. So how can our buildings sit lightly on the earth as well as withstand the vagaries of a changing climate? Read more

Dec

Can Carbon Capture Technology Help Clean up Construction?

Categories: Buildings, Components, USA and Canada

Tags: Halifax

Comments: 1

by Forum for the Future

Concrete, the world’s most abundant man-made substance, ranks second to coal as the world’s dirtiest industrial material. Now, a company in Halifax, Canada, is working to make concrete plants carbon neutral, using captured CO2 to improve their product. Read more

Nov

New Technology Pipes Daylight into Windowless Rooms

Categories: Asia and the Pacific, Buildings, Components

Comments: 2

by Forum for the Future

An innovative technology from a recent South Korean and British joint venture promises to deliver natural daylight to windowless spaces through a series of high-tech pipes, without heat gain or loss. Read more

Nov

Could Air-Cleaning Skyscrapers Create a Sustainable Chicago?

Categories: Buildings, Components, USA and Canada

Tags: Chicago

Comments: No

by Global Site Plans - The Grid

An innovative air-filtration system is the central feature of the proposed CO2ngress Gateway Towers, a skyscraper project envisioned by two students at the Illinois Institute of Technology. But how practical is it? Read more

Jul

Forget the Shard – Will Future Skyscrapers be Built Out of Wood?

Categories: Buildings, Components, UK

Tags: London, skyscrapers

Comments: No

by Forum for the Future

Steel and glass may not be the building material of the future. Architects are rethinking the potential of wood, with an open-source research study making the case for timber as “a safe, economical and environmentally-friendly alternative for tall building structure”. Read more

Jun

Could Thermoelectric Paint Make Solar Power Easy and Affordable?

Categories: Buildings, Components, USA and Canada

Tags: cc, solar

Comments: No

by Forum for the Future

Despite their benefits, solar photovoltaic panels are not a do-it-yourself delight. They're expensive too, and have payback times of 10 years or more. Now imagine a home energy system that harnessed the sun's power but was something you could easily do yourself. This is the promise of thermoelectricity. Read more