Danish architectural firm 3XN will design a pavilion for the Green Architecture for the Future exhibition to explore how cork, bio-resin and flexible solar strips can be utilized in creating eco-responsible structures. The resultant Moebius strip touts a self-cleaning surface with built-in sensors to generate electricity from human footsteps. While glass fiber composites are replaced with flax fibers, the inner core has no place for polystyrene foam, and it’s replaced with cork sheets.
The flexible solar cells are just 1mm thick and it lends them with elasticity. The pavilion’s floor has embedded piezoelectric materials that can sense human presence, and even the lightest of footsteps are enough to make them generate electricity. Therefore, the integrated LED lights do not have to rely on an external source of power. Moreover, a hydrophilic nanostructure responsibly sweeps the dirt off via a chemical process called photocatalysis. When the temperature rises beyond 23 degrees Celsius, the material starts liquefying, and when it drops, it once again regains the former shape.
It’s a joint venture of 20 companies, and the entire construction process running through four months involved close, integrated cooperation between everyone involved.
