This article was first published in the January 2016 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
In 20 years' time you could be living in a skyscraper made of wood, with solar-panel windows, along a road that repairs itself. Yet so far such experimental methods and materials have been confined to one-off buildings. "There's no shortage of ideas, but the construction industry is slow," says Pete Walker, director of the University of Bath's BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials. "Getting ideas from the drawing board into buildings can be a long and expensive process."
For mushroom- or CO<sub>2</sub>-made bricks to break into large commercial builds it's going to take more than publicity. "The industry tends to respond better to sticks than carrots," Walker says. "Traditional inorganic materials like cement, bricks and metal rely on low-cost energy, so as costs go up we've seen an interest in more cost-competitive bio-based or waste-based building materials such as hemp, flax and reeds. As energy costs continue to rise, so the way we build will change."
[h2]Here's how WIRED would construct the city of the future[b] [/h3]
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
