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 ยต-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.