Alternative building materials are reshaping how projects get built. 3D-printed concrete forms are already being used by the U.S. Army and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to cut down on construction timelines and build through adverse conditions.
Did you know there is another class of alternative materials that are poised to change the future of construction? Here’s a look at the world of metamaterials, including what they are and how we may see them on the jobsite in the near future.
Simply put, metamaterials are man-made items whose strength comes not from what they are made out of, but how they are structured. Engineers create microscopic, repetitive patterns that control how vibrations like sound and seismic waves move through them. This could allow the material to better stand pressures that may break them otherwise (think of how easily certain metals can bend in high wind).
Earlier this year, researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began 3D-printing lattice-like structures made to purposely stretch, deform, and fail. Why would someone make something that’s intended to fall apart? MIT says that gives other researchers, and eventually manufacturers, the ability to test breaking points and limits on materials; all in the name of continuous improvement.
MIT engineers made a metamaterial (right) that can better support stressors that break currently available alternatives (left) (IMAGE- MIT)
Earlier work by MIT researchers resulted in synthetic metamaterials that were both strong and stretchy, with an intricate internal structure. The materials from this research could bend and support stressors that would simply break currently available alternatives. Other researchers there have mapped how different internal structures can produce varying strengths and even absorb energy differently, opening the door for specialized applications in the future.
There are three main ways metamaterials could be applied in commercial construction:
1. Quieter buildings: Soundproofing and acoustic control
Architecture publication ArchDaily reports acoustic metamaterials that can bend or block sound waves can lead to thinner, lighter walls and partitions that quiet noises as much as their heavier counterparts. ArchDaily says this application would be well appreciated in the construction of multifamily buildings, hotels, and hospitals.
2. Stronger buildings: Seismic wave and earthquake control
Instead of only strengthening frames and foundations, the development of seismic metamaterials could protect buildings by shaping how the ground moves below it.
Seismic metamaterials have the ability to reduce or redirect the damaging energy from a quake, so that buildings stay upright.
A 2023 collaborative experiment at the University of Missouri used aluminum blocks with small resonators and bridges carved into them. Researchers simulated seismic waves and found the resonators and bridges were able to give the waves a place to travel, without impacting the integrity of the aluminum blocks.
3. More comfortable and energy-efficient buildings: Temperature control
Architect and urban designer Mehar Deep Kaur highlights the potential for metamaterials to become a “future fabric” of architecture, including building skins that help regulate temperature. Kaur says carefully engineered metamaterials could reflect, trap, or redirect heat and light, providing passive cooling that can reduce mechanical loads and reliance on costly air conditioning methods.
Like many processes in the current construction industry, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a part of metamaterial development. University of California Berkeley researchers are using AI to rapidly map out metamaterial designs, training neural networks to take prompts for desired responses and create the exact micro‑structure that can deliver them.
As AI‑driven design has already mixed with 3D printing to quickly build train stations in Japan and soldier barracks at Fort Bliss, it might not be long before metamaterials move from experiments in the laboratory to essential ingredients in tomorrow’s commercial construction projects.
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