A company in Colombia is tackling plastic waste issues and affordable housing with a single ingenious solution: interlocking LEGO-like bricks that can be used to build houses for a few thousand dollars per structure. Walls are formed using a slim slotted brick then framed using a thicker module used for beams and columns, locking the smaller units into place and providing rigid vertical and lateral support.

Conceptos Plásticos is addressing their technology to rising populations of urban poor, families with the time but not financial means or materials to construct their own dwellings. The company works with locals to source plastic and create all kinds of spaces, including emergency shelters, community and educational buildings.

The upcycled plastic blocks are easy to use and require no construction experience. They are durable, fire- and earthquake-resistant and much cheaper than other available materials. The company estimates the lifespan of the blocks at 500 years.

“We hope to create a movement where more and more people get involved,” say the company founders. “We want to develop new products that make better use of the thousands and thousands of tons of plastic that is discarded.”

“There will soon be more plastic in the sea than fish, so we really need to do something big.” Recent projects using this novel material include a hostel for displaced victims of violence in the Colombian countryside.

A group of Swedish scientists has developed a successful method for integrating conductive wire systems into plants, naturally soaked up from a gel into leaves and stems to create complete circuits in bionic hybrids. The implications, like the currents, run in two directions: power can be harvested from plants, but the plans can also be changed through the application of external energy.

Botanists and mechanical engineers from the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University added the gel at the base of test plants, which in turn hardened into flexible wires within the stems and leaves, all without damage to the organic components. They were then able to send electrical impulses through the plants, lightening and darkening flowers and leaves.

“Although many attempts have been made to augment plant function with electroactive materials, [until now] plants’ ‘circuitry’ has never been directly merged with electronics,” write the researchers in their paper Electronic Plants. “With integrated and distributed electronics in plants, one can envisage a range of applications including precision recording and regulation of physiology, energy harvesting from photosynthesis, and alternatives to genetic modification for plant optimization.”

A number of material combinations were tried before the effective solution was discovered. Some hardened and harmed the plants while others proved toxic or provided insufficient connectivity to be effective. The transparent organic polymer they settled on is able to fully wire a living rose, creating a bionic hybrid without compromising its natural functions.

More from the abstract: “The roots, stems, leaves, and vascular circuitry of higher plants are responsible for conveying the chemical signals that regulate growth and functions. From a certain perspective, these features are analogous to the contacts, interconnections, devices, and wires of discrete and integrated electronic circuits. The four key components of a circuit have been achieved using the xylem, leaves, veins, and signals of the plant as the template and integral part of the circuit elements and functions.”

Designed for empty warehouses or buildings under construction, these material-light shelters provide functionality for liminal interiors either past their prime not yet in use. Places like the infamous Tower of David, a restarted project previously inhabited by skyscraper squatters, would be an ideal candidate for this sort of system.

A polyethylene-coated metal grid frames these modest shelters, serving as walls and doors and supporting interior shelves and an exterior fabric facade. A plastic-laminated plywood floor floats above concrete or whatever raw surface is found in a target structure. Nylon nets provide a degree of privacy while letting in light and can be covered by opaque cloth as well.

Each dwelling can be completed with just $1200 and while no heating or cooling is included the system is intended to work well in tropical or other climates supporting open-air living. Since a stable roof and floor are provided, the main task is simply filling in gaps for habitation.

All(zone) drew inspiration for their Light House from traditional architecture of Thailand, often designed to be collapsed and moved as needed.

The light and flat-packable materials make it easy to ship these systems in conventional containers or other forms of transit, making them suitable possibilities for emergency shelters as well.

The designers tested their prototype by deploying it in a parking garage and staying within their mockup module for a few nights.

In this latest attempt at one-upmanship in the realm of rapid construction, a company in China has built a two-story villa from six modules, putting the 3D-printed pieces together on site with conventional equipment in under three hours.

In a country already boasting the world’s first 3D-printed apartment complex and 10 3D-printed houses assembled in a single day from scrap materials, this latest contender is located in the historical city of Xi’an. A product of the ZhuoDa group, the building boasts robust earthquake-proof construction and impressive affordability thanks in part to cost savings associated with the methods employed (around $40-50 per square foot). 90% of the construction is completed off-site, the components then shipped by truck to their destination.

Part of the strength of the structure is tied to its modular construction – each of the 6 constituent architectural subunits is structurally independent, able to survive stress and shifts relative to the whole.

The core material used in the 3D-printing process has been kept secret, but the company has indicated this new custom composite is sourced from industrial and agricultural waste, is fireproof and waterproof, and is free from harmful substances such as formaldehyde, ammonia, and radon.

On the day of the build, the living room was put together, then the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, all on the first floor. Next, the terrace, bedroom and utility rooms on the second floor were assembled. The result is a rapid construction process that reduces air and noise pollution for neighbors.

A prefabrication time of just 10 days for the core modules also compares favorably with typical on-site construction times ranging up to 6 months for a structure of comparable size, quality and durability (the estimated lifespan of the structures is 150 years). Variable finished looks will allow homebuyers to customize their individual houses, selecting mixtures for surfaces that simulate the textures and appearance of exotic and expensive materials including jade, wood, granite or marble.

A pair of crafty carpenters have separately arrived at the same conclusion: glow-in-the-dark resin is a really neat way to fill cracks, gaps, splits and other natural or accidental voids frequently found in wood shelves and surfaces.

Whether you have a small piece that needs infill or mending or a larger project in the works, one of these approaches may well be ideal for your own do-it-yourself project – basic details are provided below but full instructions on each strategy can be found via links included as well. In each case, the principle ingredients are the same: custom-mixed photoluminescent resin, leveling, cutting, sanding, time and patience.

In the first instance, Mat Brown decided to try something other than the standard invisible-style repair to solve the problem of empty space around knots, cracks and pits creating front-facing unevenness in boards to be used as shelving.

He provides further details on the process over at his blog, but in a nutshell: he used robust aluminum plumbers tape below and on the sides, leveled the surface, then heated up the resin, mixed in the powder and poured in the results. “Now it’s time to mix the resin. Give it a good mixing and then add your pigment. If you warm it up a bit, on a heater or with a hairdryer or something, the bubbles will pop out of it much more easily. Bubbles can ruin resin casts, so carefully mix and warm the resin, then let it sit for a while before pouring.” After a second similar round he cut, sanded and finished the pieces and mounted them on standard wall brackets.

Mike Warren has subsequently brought a similar idea to the table, creating a tutorial for filling in the naturally separation gaps found in a certain species of cyprus, livening up the biscuit-joined surface with bright resin.

The full illustrated list of 25 steps for this latter version can be seen on Instructables, but in this case a similar process was used, just heavier-duty tools employed (like a drum sander) to keep the workload down because of the more frequent and sizable voids found in ‘pecky cyprus’: “These damaged pockets can be easily removed and create cavities in the wood which are perfect for filling with resin and glow powder. The pockets of damaged (rotten) cypress are soft and can [be cleared] with compressed air and some light digging with a hand tool.” Hat tip to Chris of Colossal for finding both of these projects as well.