Self-Healing Concrete: The Latest Architecture and News

Space exploration isn’t merely a testament to human ambition or a quest for new territories and resources. Our ventures beyond Earth’s atmosphere are driven by a deeper purpose: to understand better our place in the cosmos and to pioneer innovations that can transform life on our home planet.

While venturing beyond our planet captures the imagination, the true impact of space exploration may be felt much closer to home. Public perception often frames space exploration as a distant endeavor with limited relevance to terrestrial challenges. However, this perspective overlooks the substantial contributions of space programs to our world. By driving technological innovation, expanding our scientific knowledge, and inspiring future generations, space exploration has proven to be an invaluable catalyst for addressing global issues.

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Buildings, regrettably, don't last forever. Until recently, the only way to increase a building's lifespan was ongoing maintenance, which can be expensive, time-consuming and in the case of infrastructure such as bridges or roads, inconvenient. Beyond that, periodic replacement of the entire structure was an option, however this is clearly not a sustainable solution, especially considering the amount of CO2-releasing concrete used in modern construction.

But in the 21st century, another alternative is emerging. This article on CityLab uncovers three self-healing materials that could significantly extend the lifespan of a construction, including Erik Schlangen's asphalt that re-sets itself with a dose of induction heating, concrete developed at TU Delft (and elsewhere) that patches up cracks with the help of its living bacterial aggregate, and a recent discovery by MIT scientists that some metals have self-healing properties.

Read the article in full here, or carry on after the break for our own coverage of Erik Schlangen and TU Delft's work in self-healing materials.