ME Assistant Professor A. John Hart, along with architect Neri Oxman of MIT, has received the 2008 Holcim Next Generation Award for Sustainable Construction, for “Construction In Vivo”, a proposal for design and development of energy-saving active nanocomposite building skins.
The winning project seeks to use hierarchical combinations of nanostructures and conventional building materials to locally vary material properties, and to embed environment-responsive behaviors such as changing porosity and transparency, directly within structural panels. More information about the project is available on the Construction in Vivo web site.
The Holcim Awards are organized by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, are juried by a panel of renowned independent experts, and seek projects and concepts which demonstrate an ability to stretch conventional notions about sustainable building and construction while balancing environmental, social and economic performance.