How cool is this stuff? Concrete that changes colour; go from black, grey, or red, to white in five seconds. Chronos Chromos Concrete is the work of Royal College of Art kids Chris Glaister, Afshin Mehin, and Tomas Rosén. It works by applying a current via a heating element embedded in the concrete. As the concrete warms, its colour changes. Watch a video of it here.
(via Newsvine)
Never mind the pixels - shouldn't all urban buildings be made of color-changing concrete? We want to bounce light & heat when it's hot out, absorb it when it's cold.
Posted by: clew | May 16, 2006 at 09:28 PM
I'm skeptical of this. Thermochromic dyes degrade in UV light, and they just don't generally work for very long before they degrade. I see things starting out fine - like those Genera Hypercolor T-shirts from years back - and getting less impressive w/ exposure to the elements or even to the other chemicals in the concrete mix itself. A color changing concrete wall soon becomes just another concrete wall - my prediction anyway, unless some new fancypants chemical design went into the dyes or sumpin'. I'd love to see it work - color changes for the life of the concrete! I just don't think it will work yet. Prove me wrong, by all means - I wish the designers the best. What an exciting idea!
Posted by: John Renshaw | June 28, 2007 at 09:25 PM