On Buildings that Compute. A Proposal

Abstract

We present ideas aimed at bringing revolutionary changes on architectures and buildings of tomorrow by radically advancing the technology for the building material concrete and hence building components. We propose that by using nanotechnology we could embed computation and sensing directly into the material used for construction. Intelligent concrete blocks and panels advanced with stimuli-responsive smart paints are the core of the proposed architecture. In particular, the photo-responsive paint would sense the buildings internal and external environment while the nano-materialconcrete composite material would be capable of sensing the building environment and implement massive-parallel information processing resulting in distributed decision making. A calibration of the proposed materials with in-materio suitable computational methods and corresponding building in-formation modelling, computer-aided design and digital manufacturing tools could be achieved via models and prototypes of information processing at nano-level. The emergent technology sees a building as high-level massiveparallel computer -assembled of computing concrete blocks. Based on the generic principles of neuromorphic computation and reservoir computing we envisage a single building or an urban quarter to turn into a large-scale sensing substrate. It could behave as a universal computer, collecting and processing environmental information in situ enabling appropriate data fusion. The broad range of spatio-temporal effects include infrastructural and human mobility, energy, bio-diversity, digital activity, urban management, art and socializing, robustness with regard to damage and noise or real-time monitoring of environmental changes. The proposed intelligent architectures will increase sustainability and viability in digitised urban environments by decreasing information transfer bandwidth by e.g, utilising 5G networks. The emergence of socio-cultural effect will create a cybernetic relationship with our dwellings and cities.

Form and Data from linear Calculus to cybernetic Computation and Interaction

“…A further step will include the integration of bio-computers (Marks, 2013), (L. Werner, 2019)-already researched on in the 1970s (Asaro, 2007)-to enhance cyber-physical systems with distributed robots (Hamann et al, 2017), intelligent building skins and computational materials integrated into our habitats. (Dade-Robertson et al, 2016) I would like to differentiate between the two approaches, one relates to an increasingly complex network combining buildings, bodies and construction, another relates to the nature of the actual computers and the way they will compute (Adamatzky et al, 2019), a third one to an architectural aesthetic AND behavior that operates according to biological principles.…”

Towards Embedded Computation with Building Materials

“…Each building block would sense itself and the environment, monitor safety of the construction, environmental pollution, and interact with humans in an intelligent way. This far-fetched vision has been already proposed and supported with some preliminary experimental and theoretical investigations [ 16 ]; however, long-term changes in concrete-based materials, which may lead to significant changes in electric properties of this material, should be taken into account in the case of out-of-lab applications. The selection of concrete as a computational medium seems shocking at the first glance.…”

“…This is realized by advanced network systems and software implementation of ML, whereas the building structure acts only as a skeleton to ensure its durability and insulation. Through the use of efficient ML methods, such as Reservoir Computing (RC), it becomes possible to develop intelligent infrastructure based on the building blocks capable of embedded, distributed information processing [ 16 ].…”

“…Therefore appropriate doping, which can induce memristive properties in concrete-based materials is desired. In our recent work, we have suggested the possibility of implementing RC concepts based on hybrid construction material—A “computing concrete” based infrastructure, that could potentially work as a massively interconnected parallel processor [ 16 ]. This assumption was drawn on the basis of rich and nonlinear responses of the device to the electrical stimulation.…”

Computing with Modular Robots

“…Not necessarily the substrates and protocols should be efficient or optimal but they might open our horizons of understanding on how chemical and physical system process information and how a computation can be embedded into novel smart materials and intelligent structures. The unconventional computation can be applied in the intelligent structures -modular designs of buildings where a computation is implemented by building blocks, their ensembles and parts of the building [9]. The smart building structures do echo up to some degree von Neumann original ideas on machines constructing machines [46].…”