Are you interested in architecture? Have you ever thought about how the outside of a building could help the environment? Read this article to find out about research into buildings that can collect water and create energy .
Architecture looks to the future, looking for better materials and construction methods, or creating buildings that give us better ways of living. Professor Neil Spiller, an architect and head of the University of Greenwich’s School of Architecture & Construction, has a long history in futuristic architecture, and is currently working with researchers to develop a new covering for buildings. The research, conducted by teams from Greenwich, the University of Southern Denmark, University College London, could be extremely beneficial in hot climates, collecting water and using sunlight to collect biofuels.
‘I’ve been interested in the impact of new technologies on architecture since the early 1990s,’ explains Professor Spill. ‘that was the start of cyberspace and virtual reality generally, and people started to talk about biotechnology.’ Professor Spiller co-edited an influential edition of the AD journal on architecture and cyberspace, then became interested in nanotechnology. In 2004 he formed a research group while at University College London, called AVATAR (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research). Dr Rachel Armstrong who is working on the current protocell project became the co-director of one part of it exploring architectural and synthetic biology.