Seeds to skyscrapers
Wood is one of the oldest building materials but its use is limited by its properties. With new funding, researchers aim to stretch these properties to an unprecedented degree, creating the means to build a skyscraper out of plants. Although the techniques to manipulate manufactured materials are better understood, the potential to generate materials with diverse properties based on plants may be far greater - Michael Ramage It's not often that research begins with designing a wooden 70-storey office building that falls over, at least on paper. But this is what a group of architectural engineers in Cambridge did to demonstrate that wood is simply not up to the task. Today, almost all new large-scale buildings are constructed using concrete and steel. Valued for their strength, flexibility and stability, these materials are nonetheless notoriously energy-intensive, with the manufacturing of construction materials for buildings suggested to account for around 5% of total UK emissions. Indeed, CO2 emissions embodied in how the fabric of the building is constructed can be just as significant as the operational emissions once it is occupied.
