Our built environment is aging and failing faster than we can maintain it. Recent building collapses and structural failures of roads and bridges are indicators of a problem that’s likely…
Residue-free and sustainable removal of contaminants. In Germany, there are around three million buildings that are contaminated with the toxic wood preservatives lindane and pentachlorophenol (PCP). Previous measures for minimizing…
Drexel University’s ‘BioFiber’ can stabilize and heal damaged concrete. In hopes of producing concrete structures that can repair their cracks, researchers from Drexel University’s College of Engineering are putting a…
ETH Zurich researchers deployed an autonomous excavator, called HEAP, to build a six metre-high and sixty-five-metre-long dry-stone wall. The wall is embedded in a digitally planned and autonomously excavated landscape…
Textiles are a given in civil engineering: they stabilize water protection dams, facilitate the revegetation of slopes at risk of erosion, and even make asphalt layers of roads thinner. Until…
Components released from facade materials… The plaster and mortar used in facades often contain heavy metals and biocides that leach out and infiltrate into the soil when it rains. The…