Concrete that heals itself!

Now here’s an invention that could revolutionise construction technology as we know it and set your home repair requirements back by years! Doesn't that sound like good news all round?

Scientists in the Netherlands claim to have created a bio-concrete blend that allows concrete to …yes! Heal itself! Anybody who’s in the construction industry or has ever tried to repair cracked concrete knows what a nightmare it can be. Dry and cracked concrete can begin to disintegrate and be messy and nearly impossible to repair. Which, of course, is why this new technology is so exciting! 

Inhabitat.com reports that the Dutch scientists have created a bio-concrete blend with built-in bacteria that patch up on small holes and cracks in concrete. The bacteria basically feeds on the food provided in the concrete when activated by water to combine calcium with carbon dioxide and oxygen. What would be the result is essentially limestone.

In order to find bacteria that could survive in the high-pH environment of the concrete mix as well as lie dormant for years, the scientists looked especially in the soda lakes of Russia and Egypt. Fortunately, the bacteria they found were the perfect match.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Newcastle in UK have actually created a new type of bacteria that release glue that can mend concrete! There is, however, no news yet on when these bacteria will be ready for commercialization but the hope is it will be sometime soon.

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Fishing for plastic

If you were to be wandering around the Botafogo Beach in Rio around now, don't be surprised to see two giant fish rearing out of the sand and seemingly aiming for the sky.Glittering with the reflection of the sun's rays or if it's a little later in the evening, glowing a warm blue and red (thanks to little LED lights), juxtaposed against the scenic backdrop of Rio's mountains, they might look like something your beauty-drunk brain made up on its own. But they're real, alright. Well, not real fish but real enough otherwise. 

Image by Ascom Riotur

Made out of plastic bottles, these gorgeous fish are not only a spectacular tourist attraction for the duration of the  United Nations Conference of Sustainable Development or the Rio +20. They are also intended to remind us, not least of all, thanks to their sheer size, of the threat of over-consumption of plastic bottles to the planet. Each day human beings around the world use millions of these disposable plastic bottles that are ironically, not disposed of correctly, ending up at land fills instead of being recycled. Unsurprisingly our rivers and oceans are also victims of this over-consumption, directly affecting the marine life which is choking under all this plastic. 

The giant sculptures are meant to impress people, in many ways, of the the threat plastic and our careless attitudes towards its use pose to the ecosystem, and more specifically to marine life. And the bottles used for this are barely an infinitesimal portion of the real problem facing us. 

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It's all bio!

(picture courtesy inhabitat.com)

This is one home you’re not likely to forget in a hurry. The Villa Bio in Figueres, Spain designed by Cloud9, Barcelona is as eye-catching a home as it is Green. This home has a gorgeous living roof, floor to ceiling glass windows that cap the ends and even an underground parking. 

The entire structure of the house seems to be composed of one ribbon of concrete, slit across the middle and pulled up to make it seem like a split-level. There are also no beams in the house to support the structure, even with the living roof which adds a considerable amount of weight. The living roof at Villa Bio is also designed to support the weight of people lounging in the garden as well as gardening on it. The garden however is a Hydroponic garden which means the garden is planted without the use of soil. 

However, there is the fact that concrete has a rather high carbon footprint. But on the upside it has a remarkably long life and can be recycled. 

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10 tips to get you started on your Japanese style home

Do you sometimes feel like there’s too much clutter in our day to day lives? There are too many demands, commitments, lists, desires, necessities ... just too much! Do you wish your home would be a haven from these constant demands of the outside world; a place where there’s more space to do, think or just be, and less clutter? Well, you’re not the first. The first person or people who had this idea are probably credited with the creation of the modern style of furnishing.

However, if you’re not one for steel and chrome but still love the clean lines of the modern style then you might want to try going Oriental with your home decorating style. Now, adopting this style in practicality may take a little more research but the basics that you need to get yourself set for a Japanese style home are the following:

1.     As a general rule, stick to neutral colours and soft, natural colours in neutral tones.

2.     Even if you would like to pick one accent colour for your interiors, make sure it’s not an unnaturally bright one. Pick deep brown, turquoise, sort pink or mauve, or even red.

3.     Resist the temptation to turn your walls into collages of every picture you ever took. If you must, pick one accent wall and put up a few pictures in simple frames.

4.     In fact, why just the walls, declutter your house and your lifestyle. Throw out things you don’t or haven’t used in a while or give them to somebody who could use them.

5.     Use light screens of dark wood or bamboo screens to separate spaces.

6.     For your furnishing, pick a low seating arrangement with tables to match. You can even choose to take your seating to the floor but that might be a problem with some of your guests so we’d suggest something that’s between the two.

7.     Invite nature in. It doesn’t necessarily have to be big plants, either. Get a small, flowering plant or even a small plant of dancing bamboos which you can even place on a corner table, or perhaps a small rockery or waterfall in your garden space.

8.     If you’re willing to go as far as relaying a floor, consider getting bamboo flooring. It’s also a very environment-friendly option.

9.     Consider laying down Tatami floor mats to cover the floor.

10.   Use Shoji and Fusuma screens to cover your windows. They not only block out the harsh outside light but also look great.

The basic principle you need to keep in mind when going the Japanese way with your interiors is that Japanese architecture and design works in very close conjunction with nature, both in terms of materials and decor; so keep your spaces open plan and use plenty of glass.

                                                                                                                                                     

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5 tips for the pocket sized garden

Unfortunately, in today’s Lego block world, garden space is not a luxury most of us can afford. In fact, you’re lucky if you own a patch of grass to call your own. And if you are, in fact, one of these lucky souls, we have just the ideas you need to make that little garden space turn into your personal haven!

1.     A good imagination always helps so that when you look at your little piece of land you don’t extra garbage space but a potential garden.

2.     We really liked the idea of small step gardens. They’re exactly like the terrace gardens you studied about in school, only a lot more compact, and you don’t necessarily have to grown vegetables in it. Plus, they’re expandable and conserve water; just add on another little step whenever you want to add more plants.

3.     Another really great idea is of gutter gardens! No, don’t wrinkle your nose we promise you they’re not disgusting. The idea is to create a long pipe like structure (open from the top, of course) that can be strung along a fence or a wall and grow plants in that. Some people create these “gutters” out of wide bamboo sticks cut across in half.

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     Another interesting idea would be the one created by Wee Tree landscape designers of Chicago where they place horizontal planters between fence slats, creating a sort of wall of plants.

5.     If what you have in the name of a garden is a square spot of concrete or are not a huge fan of crouching with a spade in your garden, a raised flower bed that stands much like a table on its own four legs is a great idea, looks great and barely takes up any floor space at all!

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5 Green-ovations you want to look into!

Consider yourself ‘Green inclined’? Do you want your new home or your soon-to-be revamped home to be as Green as possible? Well, then the possibilities of what you can do boggle the mind. And if money’s no object then sky really is the limit as technology comes to your rescue.

Eco-friendly paint for your home has now been around for so long that there's hardly anybody who doesn't know of it. Just as we've all (in the days before eco-friendly paint) walked into a freshly painted space and felt dizzy with the fumes before the tour was even over! And the answer came in the form of Low VOC paints - paints that emit fewer fumes on application and removal, as well as in the years afterwards. For your house exteriors, however, you might want to pick a paint that'll last you longest, since low-maintenance is also Green.

Wanting to bring the sun straight into your home now has new meanings. If you thought solar panels were expensive and too much of an investment for a rented house, these movable solar panels could well be your manna from heaven. Easily installed, you can literally roll these soft solar panels, pick them up and leave the next time you decide to move house.

If you’re so inclined you could also wire your home to a large flat screen monitor that monitors your room-by-room energy consumption helping you identify the areas where you could cut down.

Another fascinating trend is that of modular homes that can literally be packed up and moved with you. What is really interesting about these homes is that their energy-consumption is remarkably lesser considering they can be kept warm or cool as you desire with markedly lesser energy consumption.

If you’re fond of your long hot water showers at the end of the day, you also need to know that every 5-minute shower that you take sends about 80 litres (20 gallons) of water down the drain – literally. That’s enough drinking water for a day for about 20 people. Investing in shower water conservation does sound like a good idea now, doesn’t it? If you scout around in the market you will find ones that suit your requirements the best. We’re sure they’ll prove to be worthy of the investment in the future.

And of course, at the end of the day remember the adage that tells you that there’s nothing Greener than low maintenance. The lesser time, money, energy and resources you have to spend maintaining it the more Green it is!

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The Green Ec(h)o!

Eco! It’s nothing if not the new buzzword. It’s the wagon everybody seems to want to jump on to. But eco, like charity, begins at home right? So, what exactly is an eco home, then?

Now, before you picture yourself hitching a bag and heading to the woods or living in a drippy thatch hut in the middle of town with high-end cars and SUVs zipping past or a house with walls of corrugated paper – don’t. All this hue and cry about eco homes is not an underground conspiracy to get you to move into either of those. What an eco home, undoubtedly, is about is an attitude, lots of sensitivity, sprinkled generously with wisdom.

So, basically, whether or not you live in an eco home is really only a reflection of you. Yes, you want every single modern appliance known to man and then some. Yes, you want your home to light up like the Eiffel Tower at the push of a button and for it to be as plush as that of the shahs of Iran. But living luxuriously does not mean you cannot live wisely.

That button which will turn off the light is not, in fact, a mile’s trek from you; use what you need when you need it. Make use of the natural resources available to you. It is, after all, possible for you to harvest rain water and to design your home such that it makes the best of all the natural light and air coming in before you resort to artificial sources. Plant a living or green roof if you can. It'll not be an eye-catching trendsetter, it'll naturally regulate the temperature of your home, all year round! And there, the home you’ve always lived in has now metamorphosed into an eco home!

Remember, an eco consciousness lies in the mind. If you care, it shows and that’s what makes a real difference. 

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