Custom houses in the metaverse and more tech news.

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It can be hard to keep up with the ever-evolving news at the intersection of architecture and technology. But fear not, dear readers:A has you covered with a mini-roundup of new biohome tech, metaverse house tours, and AI trendsetting to inform your practice and add to your Rolodex “fun facts” cocktail hour conversation:

The University of Maine unveils the first 3D house made from fully recyclable bio-based materials

Along with many other states and cities, Maine is facing an affordable housing crisis. Often requiring less time and labor to build on-site, 3D-printed houses may offer a solution to the challenging housing shortage. In that spirit, late last year, researchers at the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) celebrated the completion of BioHome3D, the first 3D-printed home made with bio-based materials.

The 3D-printed roof of the 600-square-foot prototype is made of wood fibers and bioresins, while the insulation is 100 percent wood material. The floors and walls are also 3D printed. It was built with locally sourced materials to reduce reliance on a global supply chain that has withstood many shocks and crises since 2020.

BioHome3D was printed in four off-site modules; on-site assembly required only half a day of work.

“There are many technologies being developed to 3D print homes, but unlike BioHome3D, most are printed with concrete. However, only concrete walls are printed on a conventionally cast concrete base. Traditional timber framing or timber trusses are used to complete the roof,” ASCC Executive Director Dr. Habib Dagher said in a press release. “Unlike existing technologies, the entire BioHome was 3D printed, including the floors, walls and ceiling. The biomaterials used are 100% recyclable, so our great-grandchildren can completely recycle BioHome3D.”

Future versions of the house could be customized to meet the owner’s space and energy needs. Right now, ASCC is monitoring the house’s performance during the chilling Maine winter. This data will be used to inform future iterations of BioHome3D.

Is the Scottish Parliament the ugliest building in the world? (Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament/Wikimedia Commons/Scottish Parliament Open License)

Buildworld uses a sentiment analysis tool to make a list of the world’s ugliest buildings

Using the sentiment analysis tool HuggingFace, a team from building materials and products retailer Buildworld compiled a list of the world’s ugliest buildings. The team started with a list of buildings in the UK and US that were often assumed to be “ugly” and ran the names of the buildings through HuggingFace, a machine learning platform trained to detect positive tones. and negative about a topic or idea. The platform relies on tweets to analyze what is being said about buildings online. The ugliest award is determined, in this case, by the percentage of negative sentiment about the building.

The machine has spoken and has determined that the worst monstrosity is the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh, pictured above, a postmodern structure by architect Enric Miralles that had 42.07 percent of the tweets analyzed critical of its design. In the United States, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, also known as the FBI headquarters, turned out to be the worst, with 37.84 percent of tweets criticizing its design. Boston’s brutalist City Hall building came in second. Chicago’s Thomson Center and the Watergate Complex also made the top ten list in the United States.

More information about the experiment and the full list of ugly buildings can be found here.

New discovery about the durable property of ancient Roman concrete

A research team from MIT, Harvard University, and laboratories in Italy and Switzerland has uncovered some secrets about a tried-and-true construction material and method that is as old as time: concrete. Their findings, which were published in the journal Progress of science earlier this month, he provided evidence about the durability and self-healing nature of the abundant material.

It was previously assumed that the strength of old concrete came from a pozzolanic material such as volcanic ash, but the discovery of “lime clasts”, small white minerals found in the samples, is probably where the material gets its durability. Scientists had previously dismissed the lime clasts as remnants of a poor mixing technique, but now the researchers are revising that conclusion.

Further study of the lime clasts determined that they were made of calcium carbonate. A spectroscopic examination of the specks led the research team to deduce that they were mixed with concrete at very high temperatures and it is this process and step that solidifies the concrete’s durability.

With this discovery, old buildings and statues with cracks can be repaired or made whole again, extending the life of structures and reducing the need for cement production that can have detrimental environmental impacts. It also opens up the opportunity for new construction, namely 3D printed buildings, which continue to rise in popularity as an alternative construction material and method.

A national home builder is giving tours of homes in the metaverse.

KB Home is inviting prospective customers to dress up as an avatar and explore its model homes virtually. The homebuilding company created a showroom on the Decentraland deck for buyers to tour homes in contemporary, Spanish, farmhouse and Craftsman styles. A virtual host is available to answer questions about the homes, the construction process, and customization options.

“KB Home has a long history of groundbreaking innovation. Today, we are creating forward-thinking opportunities for next-generation homebuyers to experience a new KB Home community virtually,” KB Home President and CEO Jeffrey Mezger said in a press release. “We know that consumers are becoming more immersed and spending more time in virtual spaces. The KB Home metaverse community is all about discovery and creation and provides an engaging environment for homebuyers to explore what truly sets us apart: innovative design, personalization and partnership.”

The Los Angeles-based company partnered with The Metaverse Group to design and build its nirvana Decentraland KB Home.

Screenshot of Reset Earth Impact Simulator game (United Nations Environment Program Ozone Secretariat)

The UN turns the protection of the ozone layer into an online game

This week, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Ozone Secretariat released its latest version of a simulator designed to help teenagers understand how to protect our precious environments and ecosystems that support life through interventions of global and local policies.

The Apollo Edition of the Reset Earth Impact Simulator game allows students to choose from four possible policy directions that affect the ozone layer. Apollo, a plucky blue-haired avatar, pictured above, and his robot companion design the sets while educating students about the Montreal Protocol, the multilateral agreement regulating ozone-depleting substances (ODS). ).

“By providing young people with innovative learning tools, we hope to inspire them to become the future scientists and policymakers who champion environmental protection,” said Meg Seki, Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat.

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