PROJECTS
Our deep expertise across the life cycle of building and infrastructure enables us to apply the world’s most promising technologies to the sector’s biggest challenges. Today, in our labs and in the real world, we are already redefining the way we design, manufacture, and build.
Engineered for Resilience:
ECC / Bendable Concrete
Inspired by nature’s most elegant shock absorbers, Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) are building materials that are more resilient and longer-lasting than typical reinforced concrete. Self-healing, self-thermal-adapting, and self-air-cleaning, ECC is already in use around the world today, in bridges and buildings designed to withstand the life- and weather-loads increasing with climate change.
Construction With Zero Waste:
RecoBlox™
High-quality, damage-tolerant construction blocks, RecoBlox™ are manufactured using ECC and 3D printing technology. Architects design with the materials and modular system in mind; the blocks can be produced and assembled on site with the aid of robotics. At the end of the structure’s life, the blocks can be retrieved, returned, refurbished, and deployed again—not recycled, but fully reused.
Closing the Loop:
Carbon Sequestration in Cement
A highly carbon-intensive material, cement is a key ingredient in the estimated 30 billion metric tons of concrete consumed every year. University of Michigan researchers are mitigating the effects of the material on the environment by using CO2 as a resource. Their process, which creates a high-value, ductile, and resilient building material, sequesters carbon as much as 30 percent.