Coral-Like Living Skin for Buildings

Photo from Inhabitat

Researchers at the University of Greenwich in the UK are developing a carbon negative building material that would not only help fight climate change but protect the structures it is built upon. The material is made from protocells — super simple cells that have only the basic elements of life, yet are able to grow and multiply — that will capture carbon in their membranes and grow over time to create a hard, coral-like armor around or under buildings.

This, at first blush, may seem like a great idea and I don’t want to cast any negativity on it but several questions come to mind. Since the material is a living organism what is going to happen when its targeted building is completely covered? Will it continue growing, reaching out beyond the building into the surrounding environment? You have to look at this thing as weed vine, meaning it will need to be trimmed regularly. Perhaps a maintenance programming to keep it in check would be preferable to a carbon foot print, but I can’t help thinking it will cause other problems we may not want to deal with.

Also, when it comes time to demolish the building, will be too hard to break apart. And then the material will need to be disposed of. Of course we will hopefully be able to recycle the material.

I’m all for the continued research into this idea but I just don’t see this idea coming to fruition anytime soon.