What will our homes of the future be like? Algae walls, self-healing or breathable concrete… The houses and buildings of the future will focus above all on sobriety.

We are interested in the houses and buildings of the future… And more specifically in construction materials. How to build more. Polluting less? With innovations that are sometimes quite surprising.

What we call “green concrete,” for example, maybe your next house will be made of algae.

“Green concrete”

It is an American start-up, Prometheus, which is at the origin of the invention. A special cement that combines microscopic algae with water and sunlight and creates a biocement that mimics the way corals build reefs.

We obtain a concrete that has the same physical, mechanical, heat and cold resistance properties as traditional concrete.

But with a 90% smaller carbon footprint: this is one example among others… Hemp concrete, clay.

Australian researchers at Flinders University have developed building bricks made from industrial waste.

Byproducts of petroleum refining or even rapeseed oil from kitchen waste.

We heat, shape and obtain a construction material that is lighter than a concrete block and 16 times stronger than classic brick.

Finally, a concrete capable of swallowing pollution and spitting it out in the form of harmless elements. Just like plants absorb carbon dioxide and transform it into oxygen.

This is the beginning of this building that has just been inaugurated in Haut-Rhin.

“The walls of our houses will have superpowers”

Upon contact with daylight, a reaction will be created that will oxidize polluting substances, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds and transform them into completely harmless compounds.

Small bonus: it also allows the facade to clean itself.

The walls of our houses will have superpowers: less polluting, more solid, or they will even repair themselves, for example.

In fact, the buildings of the future will be “alive,” so to speak. We are in what we call biomimetic architecture, which is inspired by nature.

British researchers have developed a concrete that breathes, like human skin. The pores, or rather small interstices, open when the temperature or humidity exceeds a certain threshold, to allow air to circulate through the walls. We have less air conditioning in the summer and less heating in the winter.

Another example: walls capable of self-healing, for example! A healing concrete, which will regenerate thanks to the bacteria that will heal the cracks.

Several universities are working on this issue, in Delft (The Netherlands) and in Cardiff and Cambridge (United Kingdom).

A lot of small capsules containing bacteria that react to moisture are placed in the concrete.

As soon as water seeps in, meaning there is a crack, these dormant bacteria spring into action, multiplying and creating a layer of limestone that closes the open wound.

A technology that could also be used for walls and to build the roads of tomorrow: no more potholes.

Anti-urine walls

To combat unscrupulous residents in large cities, special anti-urine walls are being created.

We knew about waterproof technology, here are the “urine-proof” walls.

In San Francisco and also in Hamburg, where they obviously had a big problem with some unscrupulous residents, the municipality began covering walls with a super hydrophobic coating, called “ultra always dry paint”, designed to repel water with the same force that she was released.

Result: When a person relieves himself on the wall, instead of flowing downwards, the liquid will bounce back and splash back into the sender, directly onto his pants and shoes. Back to sender, we get caught once, but not twice.