imagine the possibilities! voyeurism in architecture.... a whole new topic to discuss like the previous porn and architecture topic. i'd like to have that between the men's and women's toilet in my office. can you say...hot sexytaries! oink, oink!
Not sure what the future of this material will hold, but I'm wondering how they are going to protect the product from knock off's...
I think it's strange that they are marketing a lamp...seems they would be much better off licensing the technology to others, and let designers use it as a raw material...
I've seen it live. Not as cool as it seems, basically concrete blocks with optical fibers as aggregate. Works only in one direction of the material (grain).
Standing in front of it and moving your hand behind is surreal though. Its more like a shadow than a transparency, a shadow through a solid! The optical fibres emit light, but blocking the fibres on the light site creates a "shadow" of dark fibers on the other side. As you can see in the photo the person stands real close to the blocks, a must to create the effect.
What do you mean by "one direction"...inside vs. outside or "(grain)" as in vertically or horizontally?
Do you think you could see colored light through the concrete? does light change the percieved color of the material?
I expected so much about the shadowing...I would guess you would have to be as close as 6 inches to see a shadow?
There is potential here, but this could shape up to be great material for bad public fountains...or bad public art in general...I wonder if Thomas Kincaid will be using it in his houding developments...
le bossman - I think you are on to something, I heard that they are planning a U.S. manufacturing facility in Texas...it's located right next door to the movie studio where the moon landing was filmed.
The building materials industry is abound with hoaxes...have you ever measured a 2x4???!!!!!
If you shine red light on one side, the other side would glow red if its a dark room (I guess... optics).
When i saw it I didn't know what it was, no one there to explain. It just looked like a stack of silvery matte concrete blocks. It was situated just like in the photo, but it was overcast outside. I gripped the blocks to look closer at the aggregate and a "shadow" of my fingers (wrapping around the blocks) was vaguely visible on the concrete.
It was never bright enough outside to create an effect as clear as the one in the photo. You basically had to touch the other side and completely block any light from entering the bright side of the fibers to see the effect clearly.
i am waiting for the test data to come back, i have asked for a sample. i really think this will replace glass block and will not have any ability to be utilized in a bearing wall. it will be great to replace glass block, now only if they can get a UL number.....
Don't, don't, don't believe the hipe. This new product seems a bit overrated to me. The fact that it can't be cast in place seems to limit its possiblities. And the costs of its manufacturing haven't even been discussed or its possible r-value as a viable enivironmental building material. It seems it will be an overpriced novelity item and not the wonder material conceptualized by other proponents as Shalak mentions. If anything AeroGel seems like a more interesting material for the construction industry because of its thermal qualities, strength, and opacity.
In the end glass will still be king, unless they can produce this produce in the field for a cast in place application- it will be just another masonry product like glass block - don't forget that think haven't shown it with grout yet. Even if they can produce large beam like components similar to glass it will never transmit as much light and the arrangement of the glass fibers within the members that are produced will no doubt be heavily expensive. I'm sure some will use this in an interesting way, but right now it can only function as stacked module.
Yes, the production of the blocks is of course costly. I was studying at the same department as Aron in Stockholm when he made the very first prototype for the Litracon, and it was interesting to see him slowly building up a single block by carefully layering concrete and optical fibres by hand. Never got to see the final product though, until now. Initially the fibres were also thought of as offering some reinforcement to the block, but that idea seems to have been scrapped (probably since you usually would want to reinforce along the length of the material, but let light through across it)
Jul 8, 04 7:49 am ·
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My New Favorite Material......
Could be nice - Imagine the ghosting of reinforcing arrays and aggregate possibilities!
Thoughts?
Here's the link - Apologies for HTML woes.....
http://news.yahoo.com/news...
this is obviously not real...don't be fooled
Litracon was featured in a National Building Museum newsletter recently.
I'm waiting for a sample to become available in the US.
www.litracon.com
bossman, how could you doubt something on the internet?
imagine the possibilities! voyeurism in architecture.... a whole new topic to discuss like the previous porn and architecture topic. i'd like to have that between the men's and women's toilet in my office. can you say...hot sexytaries! oink, oink!
I love it! but I hope the prices won't be outrageous once they are available. the lamp made of one block is 520! how much would a wall be?
or what about a wall made of lamp blocks!
I'm pretty sure this was posted on archinect some time ago...check out their links page (toward the bottom):
http://www.litracon.com/links_internet.htm
Not sure what the future of this material will hold, but I'm wondering how they are going to protect the product from knock off's...
I think it's strange that they are marketing a lamp...seems they would be much better off licensing the technology to others, and let designers use it as a raw material...
well, despite that this is all a hoax it would be pretty sweet...although you'd have a lot of students utilizing this stuff for the sake of "cool"
I've seen it live. Not as cool as it seems, basically concrete blocks with optical fibers as aggregate. Works only in one direction of the material (grain).
Standing in front of it and moving your hand behind is surreal though. Its more like a shadow than a transparency, a shadow through a solid! The optical fibres emit light, but blocking the fibres on the light site creates a "shadow" of dark fibers on the other side. As you can see in the photo the person stands real close to the blocks, a must to create the effect.
Kalle-
What do you mean by "one direction"...inside vs. outside or "(grain)" as in vertically or horizontally?
Do you think you could see colored light through the concrete? does light change the percieved color of the material?
I expected so much about the shadowing...I would guess you would have to be as close as 6 inches to see a shadow?
There is potential here, but this could shape up to be great material for bad public fountains...or bad public art in general...I wonder if Thomas Kincaid will be using it in his houding developments...
le bossman - I think you are on to something, I heard that they are planning a U.S. manufacturing facility in Texas...it's located right next door to the movie studio where the moon landing was filmed.
The building materials industry is abound with hoaxes...have you ever measured a 2x4???!!!!!
If its a wall horisontal
If you shine red light on one side, the other side would glow red if its a dark room (I guess... optics).
When i saw it I didn't know what it was, no one there to explain. It just looked like a stack of silvery matte concrete blocks. It was situated just like in the photo, but it was overcast outside. I gripped the blocks to look closer at the aggregate and a "shadow" of my fingers (wrapping around the blocks) was vaguely visible on the concrete.
It was never bright enough outside to create an effect as clear as the one in the photo. You basically had to touch the other side and completely block any light from entering the bright side of the fibers to see the effect clearly.
i am waiting for the test data to come back, i have asked for a sample. i really think this will replace glass block and will not have any ability to be utilized in a bearing wall. it will be great to replace glass block, now only if they can get a UL number.....
I liked clear concrete better when it was known as glass. Both have the same compression strength.
Don't, don't, don't believe the hipe. This new product seems a bit overrated to me. The fact that it can't be cast in place seems to limit its possiblities. And the costs of its manufacturing haven't even been discussed or its possible r-value as a viable enivironmental building material. It seems it will be an overpriced novelity item and not the wonder material conceptualized by other proponents as Shalak mentions. If anything AeroGel seems like a more interesting material for the construction industry because of its thermal qualities, strength, and opacity.
In the end glass will still be king, unless they can produce this produce in the field for a cast in place application- it will be just another masonry product like glass block - don't forget that think haven't shown it with grout yet. Even if they can produce large beam like components similar to glass it will never transmit as much light and the arrangement of the glass fibers within the members that are produced will no doubt be heavily expensive. I'm sure some will use this in an interesting way, but right now it can only function as stacked module.
I was speaking about Litracon and not what Price or Koolhaas might have up their sleeves.
John Jourden:
Yes, the production of the blocks is of course costly. I was studying at the same department as Aron in Stockholm when he made the very first prototype for the Litracon, and it was interesting to see him slowly building up a single block by carefully layering concrete and optical fibres by hand. Never got to see the final product though, until now. Initially the fibres were also thought of as offering some reinforcement to the block, but that idea seems to have been scrapped (probably since you usually would want to reinforce along the length of the material, but let light through across it)
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