Villa resists cracking up

A villa designed to resist earthquakes by ‘self-healing’ cracks in its own walls and monitoring vibrations through an intelligent sensor network is to be built on a Greek mountainside.

The University of Leeds’ NanoManufacturing Institute (NMI) will develop walls for the house that contain nano polymer particles under the £9.5m EU-funded project. These will turn into a liquid when squeezed under pressure, flow into the cracks, and then harden to form a solid material.

NMI chief executive Prof. Terry Wilkins said: ‘What we’re trying to achieve here is very exciting; we’re looking to use polymers in much tougher situations than ever before on a larger scale.’

The house walls will be built from novel load bearing steel frames and high-strength gypsum board. They will contain wireless, battery-less sensors and Leeds-designed radio frequency identity tags that collect vast amounts of data about the building over time, such as any stresses and vibrations, temperature, humidity and gas levels.