Self-Assembling Buildings: Far-Fetched Myth Or Near Future? (+VIDEO)
Architect Skylar Tibbits of MIT with his partner Arthur Olson of The Scripps Research Institute have presented BioMolecular Self-Assembly (sponsored by Autodesk) at TED Global 2012 (Edinburgh, Scotland). Their project is basically ingredients for molecular assembly put in individual flasks and shaken well. The result is the following: the independent parts find each other and assemble various structures themselves. According to Tibbits, “The first large-scale applications will likely take shape in extreme environments of near-zero gravity or neutral buoyancy, where the application of energy can lead to increases in interaction. Imagine using wave energy underwater to trigger the self-assembly of multistory structures, or parts dropped from high altitudes to unfold fully erected structures, or even modular, transformable and reconfigurable space structures!” How could those self-building machines be applied and change the world for the better – pose those questions with the video below.