Houses/Buildings

Alternative materials and methods.

The Ultimate Garage Organizer

GarageTek looks like a great way to clean up a garage. The strong, light-weight TekPanel on the walls can hold shelves, cabinets, and many other things. I wouldn't mind using TekPanel in a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, or any other place I might want to hang things on a wall. I'd love to cover every room in the house with it. Imagine hanging up pictures and changing your mind on the placement without damaging the walls. Imagine hanging up kitchen utensils, shelves, and cabinets anywhere you want. Imagine all of the space you could save, how much easier it would be to get organized, and how much easier it would be to change the configuration of shelves and cupboards on a whim. I hope this company moves TekPanel into the whole house.

Visit garagetek.com

Buy it from Amazon.com

Self-Cleaning Coating

Saint-Gobain Recherche has developed self-cleaning building materials that will keep roofs, windows and external glazed walls effortlessly clean.

These materials are covered with an invisible coating of catalyzer which destroys the organic dirt, moss, fungi, and pollution as it is deposited. When exposed to daylight, this coating generates free radicals at the surface of the materials.

These radicals destroy the soots and microorganisms that come into contact with them. This chemical phenomenon, called photocatalysis, is similar to photosynthesis. It ensures these 'intelligent' construction materials stay durably clean, and even purifies the air that comes into contact with them.

Visit saint-gobain-recherche.com info page

Build a House in a Day

Contour Crafting is a layered fabrication technology developed by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California. Contour Crafting technology has great potential for automating the construction of whole structures as well as sub-components. Using this process, a single house or a colony of houses, each with possibly a different design, may be automatically constructed in a single run, embedded in each house all the conduits for electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning.

This looks like one of the best ways to build a house or any building that anyone has ever thought of.

Visit contourcrafting.org

Disaster-Proof Home Materials

I've been searching the Internet (off and on) for many years and there finally seems to be some people who are working on the 'ultimate house.'

ThermaSAVE

ThermaSAVE is the manufacturer of a totally new building system that outperforms nearly every other construction method used today. It consists of laminated building panels called ThermaSAVE panels, manufactured under rigid control and testing procedures. Consisting of an inner and outer skin and a core of super-insulating expanded polystyrene (EPS) glued together with a special high-strength glue and dried under extreme pressure, the result is a stressed-skin panel that has amazing capabilities. The inner and outer skins can be of a variety of materials that can form the inner and outer finish or act as an underlayment for the final surface. The result is a single panel that has amazing strength, durability and thermal efficiency. With the patented spline connection system, the 4' wide panels join together to build walls, floors and roofs that are lightweight yet can withstand high wind loads and the twisting and flexing that slowly deteriorate conventional buildings.

New Materials For A Disaster-Proof Home

Article by Queena Sook Kim.

Surviving Hurricanes and Tornadoes

As we see more and more natural disasters, the wisdom of building a Monolithic Dome becomes more apparent. These structures give us absolutely the most protection of any structure that can be built at a reasonable price.

CustomSuperHomes.com

This could be a huge scam, so be careful. They claim their homes are Fire Proof, Sound Proof, Bullet Proof, Water Proof, Hurricane Proof, Mold Proof, Termite Proof, Extremely Energy Efficient, Seismically Superior, Sustainable, and Environmentally Friendly.

Formworks Building, Inc.

Hurricane proof, disaster proof, Earth sheltered homes that are environmentally friendly.

Bidirectional Carbon Fiber Wrap

Test using bidirectional carbon fiber cloth to protect a mobile home against hurricane force winds on the TV show Smash Lab.

Troy Hurtubise

You may have heard that Troy Hurtubise has invented 'Fire Paste' and a hardening compound called '1313.' He uses those creations with other materials to create lightweight blast cushions that can withstand armor piercing bullets and explosives. He hopes the military will use these blast cushions to protect the troops, but if the material could also be used in the walls of buildings, a chance to have a fire-proof, bullet-proof, bomb-proof home may not be too far away. It would be cool if he got together with the ThermaSAVE people and then we might have the ultimate house that is also affordable.

Sharpshooter says Hurtubise invention right on target

New invention will save lives, Hurtubise says

Inventor spurns burns with red-hot invention

Automatic Doors for Home Use

Not found yet. It's the 21st century, where are our Star Trek style doors? Places such as grocery stores have a version of it, so why can't we have the option to have them in our houses? Just to be clear, I don't want the same automatic glass doors that stores use, I'm looking for sturdy doors made of wood, metal, or some other superior material.

Don't worry, entrance doors and interior doors could be made to work even if we lose power. The doors would have recessed 'handles' which would be used to easily slide the doors open or closed. The locks would not be electric, so that wouldn't be a concern either.

Autoslide

"Autoslide is an automatic door system which attaches to new and old manual patio/flyscreen & Security Screen sliding doors, to enable the door to open and close automatically."

Automatic Doors and Windows

"An Assessment of Improvements in Home Living" by Stephen L. Garvin

Walls that Change Color

Not found yet.

Light-Emitting Plastics Offer a Rainbow of Possibilities

LCD paint licked

Plastic mix promises big displays

Philips sets displays free with 'paintable' LCDs

Plastics That Glow

Random Thoughts

I personally like houses that look like alien spaceships or a Star Trek set. I like automatic doors and walls that change color at the press of a button. I've always hated 'normal' looking houses, but they are better than living in a cardboard box behind a dumpster.

I also don't like wood in a house, it's ugly to me. I'm not a 'tree hugger' so it's not about that. I just think the shellacked guts of a murdered tree looks unimpressive and unattractive.