I came to the farm to see how things grow And I learned some things I didn't know Plants can grow high Plants can grow low Some grow above the ground Some grow below sung by Ernie with help from the veggies

Danijel Rebolj University of Maribor Faculty of Civil Engineering Construction IT Centre nanoBuilding concepts & requirements

Research motivation building industry  produces lots of waste  consumes lots of resources  is not very effective adequate housing  not affordable for 1.6 billion people NT potentials

Research goals design top-down NT based production concepts further explore relevant NT areas  nanorobotics  bioengineering  nanomaterials (Carbon Nano Mesh) formulate requirements for the NT bottom-up research & start cooperation

nanoBuilding concept How things grow By multiplication of basic elements  bricks, cells, molecules,... using a plan that is either  extrinsic (building plans),  intrinsic (instructions contained in DNA), or  combined (bonsai) forming functional parts  in their final size (a house)  in growing size and functionality

nanoBuilding concept Growing facilities Common practice of construction is by  sequential multiplication and composition  of a variety of macro-level building elements,  produced by traditional ways of material treatment our goal: to mimic the natural way using nano-level building elements

nanoBuilding concept Growing facilities Extrinsic plan  nanotechnology devices to produce building material at nano scale on site  phisics & chemistry laws Intrinsic & combined plan  bionanotechnology / synthetic biology to program living particles to grow systems at the higher level  biological laws

Nanotechnology The study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale Nanometer : meter = marble : Earth A prooven method for growing things - nature does it successfuly for billions of years myosin, a bio-robot = biology

Nanotechnology Nanomaterials Molecular self-assembly (incl. DNA nanotechnology), cause single-molecule components to automatically arrange themselves into some useful conformation Programmable matter C 60 fullerene

Nanotechnology Nanorobots (1 way to go): use of minuscule objects from DNA (TU München)

Nanotechnology in Construction Material refinment (e.g. 3-6x higher strenght of conrete using nano-silica, self-cleaning & antifogging using TiO 2 ) New materials with better properties – carbon nanotubes (CNT), 100x strength of steel

nanoBuilding concept The process 1.3D solid modeling 2.4D modeling (slicing & sequencing) 3.site preparation 4.building & control 5.functional testing

nanoBuilding concept The process 1.3D solid modeling define detailed solid geometry define parts of the model (3D areas), with specific material properties (strength, friction, conductivity, to form utility systems like water system, sewer system, electrical instalations, communication system etc.)

nanoBuilding concept The process 2.4D modeling defining supportive structures where necessary (for any vertical holes) slicing according to the thickness of the nano layers sequencing – defining the sequence and the default time for each slice

nanoBuilding concept The process 3.site preparation excavation to level 0 of the building setup building equipment – the projector

nanoBuilding concept The process 4.building & control planting of “seed” nanoroborts onto the ground plan self-replication of nanorobots throughout the slice creating carbon nano mesh (CNM) slice repeating the process slice by slice

nanoBuilding concept Summarized 1.Use nanorobots, able to 2.self-replicate, and 3.build CNM using C from CO 2 in the air 4.with desired characteristics 5.using light as a source 6.for energy, and 7.instructions (wavelenghts)

 input: 4D model Specific wavelengths transmit different instructions to nanorobots: -self-replicate -build CNM with specific characteristics Light projector ground plan 0

“seed” nanorobots

Instruction: - replicate

Instruction: - replicate

Instruction: -build CNM slice with high bearing stength

Instruction: -build CNM slice with high bearing stength Instruction: - build pipe wall CNM with low friction All utilities are built-in (pipes, shafts, wires,...)

Supporting structure - temporary CNM material to be decomposed after window beam is built The building is rising slice by slice...

nanoBuilding Requirements Nanorobots powered by light, able to recognize different wavelengths and compiling them into instructions compose CNM with required characteristics (strength, conductivity) using C from CO 2 from the air able to self-replicate

nanoBuilding The future

Conclusion I belive the question is not if (bio)nanotehnology can meet the defined requirements, but when. The proof of concept exists!