Neatorama picked up this wonderful story about Concrete Canvas, and I’m just thoroughly fascinated. Scientists have created a cloth that’s lined with concrete. But here’s the genius of it: the cloth doesn’t function like concrete until you add water to it.
That means you essentially have a building in a bag. You can fold up a concrete cloth tent, carry it to wherever you’d like to set it up, and then water it to make a solid structure! It seems like Concrete Canvasses could be a perfect solution for creating quick housing relief in the advent of disasters, or shelters in wartime. And the potential applications haven’t gone unnoticed; the creators have been winning all sorts of innovation awards recently, but you can read more about their invention here. Link via the always fascinating Neatorama.
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Wow. I’m a shuttering joiner by trade so concreat has been a stable in my career. This just throws everything I know about it out the window though. You’re totally right, it would be a godsend in housing relief after a disaster.
posted by Dave on 11-30-2009 at 12:17 pm
This invention was on the British series Dragons’ Den!! I think the dragons declined to invest, so kudos to the guys for making it happen!
posted by Emily on 11-30-2009 at 12:49 pm
Seems like this could have been handy in the post-Katrina climate…
posted by megan on 11-30-2009 at 1:38 pm
Amazing possibilities. Another product that has the potential to solve problems in many different applications.
posted by Carol on 11-30-2009 at 2:23 pm
This is neat, and if you want to see something else that’s pretty unique with concrete, check out the Garden of Eden in Lucas, KS.
posted by Judy on 12-1-2009 at 12:31 pm
unless i’m much mistaken, concrete itself doesn’t act like concrete until water is added to it, which seems counterintuitive to me, but there it is.
posted by john m on 12-1-2009 at 5:48 pm