Lighter and Stronger, Composites Are Changing How We Build

"The practice of combining materials to achieve better performance has accompanied humanity since the earliest constructions. One of the first known examples emerged over five thousand years ago, when civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt mixed mud and straw to mold sun-dried adobe bricks. Light and fibrous, straw prevented cracking and increased strength, while mud acted as a binder and protection."

"Three decades later, in 1936, DuPont developed fiberglass, formed by bonding glass filaments within a plastic matrix, a lightweight, strong, and versatile material capable of replacing wood and metal. During World War II, fiberglass became essential for producing boats, airplanes, and fuselages, and by the 1950s it was widely adopted in the automotive industry and, gradually, in construction. This trajectory marked the beginning of composite materials on an industrial scale, paving the way for the vast field of innovation that now reaches architecture."

"At their core, composites are materials made by combining two or more distinct components that remain separate at the microscopic level but work together to create a new material with superior performance. A matrix (usually a polymer resin) acts as the binding and protective element, while the reinforcement (often glass, carbon, aramid, or even natural fibers) provides strength and stiffness."

Humans have combined materials since ancient times, exemplified by Mesopotamian and Egyptian mud-and-straw adobe bricks where straw reduced cracking and mud bound and protected. The twentieth century introduced synthetic composites: in 1905 Leo Baekeland produced Bakelite by combining plastic with wood flour or asbestos, offering heat resistance and electrical insulation. Fiberglass emerged in 1936 as glass filaments embedded in a plastic matrix, becoming crucial in World War II for boats and aircraft and later in automotive and construction. Composites pair a matrix (often polymer resin) with reinforcements (glass, carbon, aramid, or natural fibers) to achieve enhanced strength and stiffness.

Read at ArchDaily