Building

Heating and cooling buildings is a major consumer of energy, especially older ones that weren’t built with modern energy efficiencies in mind. Now Fraunhofer engineers have developed a modular solar-powered facade that can heat or cool rooms.

We've seen a host of superb architecture projects reach completion this year, from innovative social housing to creative performance spaces and even an otherworldly museum inspired by the cosmos. Here's our pick of the best buildings of 2021.

Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world, but it comes at a huge environmental cost. Engineers in Japan have developed a new technique to make concrete by recycling waste concrete and combining it with captured carbon dioxide.

Concrete may not seem welcoming, but bacteria do live inside it. A new study has examined this concrete microbiome to find out how they get there, how they change over time, and how we might use them in future to monitor or even repair defects.

Heating and cooling systems are some of the biggest energy guzzlers, but passive temperature control could reduce emissions. Phase-change materials show promise for this, and now engineers have developed a new PCM composite that can be 3D printed.

The cement used to make concrete carries quite a carbon footprint. Now, scientists at the University of Tokyo have created a cement-free alternative that directly bonds sand particles together using a reaction between alcohol and a catalyst.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new process to convert old tires into graphene, which can then be used to make concrete. Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but the team says the resulting concrete is substantially stronger.

Unfortunately concrete production is a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now engineers at Purdue University have developed a new cement recipe that can absorb CO2 twice as fast as usual, hopefully turning it into a useful carbon sink.

Boring old bricks might not seem like something that can really be made high-tech, but researchers keep proving us wrong. Now, a team has found a way to turn bricks into energy storage devices, using them to power a green LED in a proof of concept study.

Even the smallest of deformations in structures such as buildings or bridges can lead to cracks, so the sooner that they're noticed, the better. A new laser-based system is designed to do just that, quicker and cheaper than ever before.

Strong as it is, concrete doesn’t stand up well against bending. Now, researchers at Swinburne University have developed a new type of concrete that can not only bend better, but doesn’t require cement to make, reducing its environmental footprint.

As part of a US$1.5 billion expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, the world’s first guitar-shaped hotel has now opened, adorned with thousands of LED strips that can be choreographed into elaborate light shows.