Architecture dominating materials

through the ages

Cytoskeleton

3 billion bc

The mechanical structuring of goo. Filaments provide both rigidity and actuation, stability and movement. Dynamic filaments continuously assemble and reassemble.

Pont du Gard aqueduct bridge

60 AD

Descends 1 inch over its 900-foot length. Stone blocks held together with friction and gravity. No mortar or clamps.

Brunelleschi's dome

1436 AD

150-foot masonry dome, no buttresses, no scaffolding. Two concentric shells with tension rings. Herringbone brick pattern self-reinforces as it is laid.

Nano-architected materials: Julia Greer group, Caltech

2014 AD

"Metamaterials" made of µ-scale lattices of nano-scale walls. Then, lattices of lattices... Extraordinary strength -to-weight ratios, etastreities, resilience. Crazy mechanical and electrical properties. Bouncing ceramics. The bulk materials in use today will someday seem like Egyptian pyramids.