{"id":804817,"date":"2026-03-05T03:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/804817\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:46:19","slug":"mit-designs-concrete-interior-components-to-last-1000-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/804817\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT designs concrete interior components to last “1,000 years”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a> have unveiled the Heirloom House project, a series of nine structural-concrete components that can be manually rearranged and that are intended to last for 1,000 years.<\/p>\n

As part of its ongoing partnership with the R&D department of Mexican building materials company Cemex<\/a>, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research studio Matter Design<\/a> used kinetics and physics to engineer the modular elements.<\/p>\n

\"HeirloomMIT’s Matter Design has designed the Heirloom House project<\/p>\n

According to Matter Design, the Heirloom House project confronts the paradox of permanence and adaptability in architecture.<\/p>\n

Most people live in an average of 12 homes in their lives, but these structures are initially built with the intent of lasting for much longer.<\/p>\n

\"HeirloomHeirloom House consists of modular concrete furniture<\/p>\n

To meet changing requirements, they need to be endlessly renovated, which requires more energy and creates waste.<\/p>\n

“Architecture doesn’t fail because it falls down \u2013 it fails because it becomes obsolete,” Matter Design director Brandon Clifford said.<\/p>\n

“If we treat time as design material \u2013 and mass as an asset rather than a liability \u2013 we can imagine homes that endure for generations by transforming instead of being replaced.”<\/p>\n

\"HeirloomThe components come to a point that allows them to be pivoted and moved<\/p>\n

Responding to shifting needs over time, the heavy megaliths were designed to be moved quickly.<\/p>\n

Rounded, boulder-like foot elements make it possible to pivot and wobble them into place. They can be combined in different room enclosure configurations.<\/p>\n

The team has completed three pieces to scale, showcasing the rest of the configuration at dollhouse scale.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"MIT<\/p>\n

MIT and Harvard researchers find secret to “self-healing” Roman concrete\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Most designs include thicker bases supporting thinner wall surfaces, and one incorporates steps.<\/p>\n

Scientists at MIT’s Department of Architecture recently conducted a study on the average lifespan of buildings and concluded that the figure is shorter than the average life expectancy.<\/p>\n

“The climate crisis is revealing the limits of treating buildings as consumables,” said Clifford.<\/p>\n

“What if, instead of tearing our buildings apart, we designed them to evolve with us for a thousand years?”<\/p>\n

\"HeirloomThe components were designed to fit together into different configurations<\/p>\n

Cemex’s involvement with the project tests the viability of concrete in such a project.<\/p>\n

“Designing for a thousand-year horizon pushes us to rethink what concrete can do,” said Cemex global R&D vice president Davide Zampini.<\/p>\n

“From a research and development perspective, Heirloom House challenges us to innovate at the level of material science, so concrete can endure, reconfigure, and even gain value over time.”<\/p>\n

\"Heirloom<\/p>\n

According to Matter Design, the project also addresses an economic consideration. Building with adaptable components would require no additional materials or manpower.<\/p>\n

If used multiple times over an extended time period, they could appreciate and become heirlooms.<\/p>\n

The research is built on years of work by Clifford and associates at MIT, including the construction of megaliths<\/a> that can be moved with a “fingertip” in 2015, using geometries found in ancient structures.<\/p>\n

Other research to come out of MIT recently includes a process to make houses from recycled plastic<\/a> and tiny robots that can fly as fast as a bumblebee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is courtesy of Matter Design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have unveiled the Heirloom House project, a series of nine structural-concrete components…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,30272,4022,77,275,2668,60230,58164,170088,126129,126130,129522,16,15,659],"class_list":["post-804817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-concrete","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-massachusetts","tag-mit","tag-modular-architecture","tag-modular-design","tag-modular-furniture","tag-sectionall","tag-sectionarchitecture","tag-sectiontechnology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116174519535309380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}