New “squishy concrete” to protect cultural assets during extreme … – ArtsHub

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We know there will be more big storms coming. How well-prepared are our arts buildings for these oncoming forces? Image: Max La Rochelle via Unsplash.
If you are reading this story, you’re likely to be an arts worker at, or an enthusiastic visitor to, one or more of Australia’s great cultural institutions, and the idea of protecting these buildings from future environmental damage is something close to your heart.
This is especially true as we move into an era that will undoubtedly see a greater number of climate change-induced natural disasters occur in our region.
But far from sticking our heads in the sand, in the arts, some have been taking an impressive lead as the first or as early adopters of natural disaster resilience methods. A good example of this is Bundanon on the south coast of NSW, the recently completed new Art Museum and Bridge buildings of which have natural disaster resilience embedded in their DNA.
Clearly, we have some leading lights in the arts who are setting great examples of how to future-proof our assets – something we know is increasingly important given some of those assets have already suffered terrible losses from recent natural disasters (like NORPA, Queensland Theatres headquarters, the Lismore Regional Gallery and more in 2022, and Kimberley Art Centres earlier this year).
But preventative disaster resilience doesn’t necessarily come cheap. Bundanon’s building project has indeed been worth every penny from a future-proofing perspective – including protecting its $40 million worth of art in Arthur Boyd’s collection. But it was expensive, at a cost of around $36 million.
Read: Future-proofing the arts for natural disasters
So, how can more of our cultural institutions – no matter their shape or size – better protect their buildings against extreme weather event damage?
While Queensland University of Technology (QUT) engineering academic and researcher Dr Tatheer Zahra says that she cannot provide all the solutions to future-proofing the arts, she has been working hard in recent years on a special material that could play an important role in mitigating harm to some assets.
Since 2015, Zahra has been developing a new polymer-based building material designed to offer built environments a similar kind of buffering and shock absorbing protection that the human body enjoys when it’s wearing shoes made with a memory foam, or a safety helmet made with similar defences built in.
As Zahra explains, ‘The composite’s inner reinforcing layer is like a mesh that enables materials like concrete to absorb external shocks in a similar way to how those foam materials used in shoes or helmets do.
‘Concrete is actually a very brittle material, which cracks easily,’ she continues. ‘But when my material is placed over the concrete as its rendering layer, it allows it to become more flexible.
‘I think this is how it’s been referred to as “squishy concrete”,’ she laughs. ‘Because it allows the concrete to withstand forces that would otherwise make it crack or crumble.’
While Zahra has rigorously tested her new material for its efficacy against external shocks such as those from storms, cyclones and explosions (she hasn’t yet completed testing for fire and earthquakes), the product is not yet commercially available.
‘But it’s ready for real-world applications. We just need some funding to commercialise it,’ she explains.
That said, it seems only a matter of time before Zahra’s product can start being applied to buildings at larger scales, as she also has a manufacturing system to scale the material to fit walls of any size.
‘It’s printed using a 3D printer,’ Zahra explains. ‘But this printer can currently only make a maximum size of a one metre by one metre panel. So I have designed a special interlocking system for those one by one metre panels to fit together for large-scale application,’ she says, adding that the interlocked panels perform no differently in terms of their disaster resilient efficacy.
‘I have tested them thoroughly and the performance of the material is just as strong when it’s installed as interlocking panels,’ she adds.
While Zahra is currently working on commercialising her product for use across a diverse range of applications in the construction sector, she says she sees a particular role for its use in arts contexts.
‘It can be added to existing building walls of vulnerable buildings, or it can be used in new builds,’ she tells ArtsHub. ‘And I think that when it comes to art galleries and museums – these are buildings that house objects and collections of immense value, so I think this material presents real value for money.
‘Because when a disaster actually hits, the repairs require a lot of money, and there are other health and trauma issues that come with that for communities too. So if you can invest initially in these materials, you can save the high costs that happen later on in the event of these disasters and damage,’ she says.
Now that her new material is ready for larger-scale production, Zahra is focused on taking the next steps for real-world applications.
‘My plan is to show this [material] to larger audiences, to show more people how the technologies and manufacturing methods I am using are not so expensive, and to show them how they will certainly save costs and protect assets in the long-run,’ she concludes.
For arts organisations interested in working with Zahra’s new material, you can get in touch with her via QUT, here.
ArtsHub’s Arts Feature Writer Jo Pickup is based in Perth. An arts writer and manager, she has worked as a journalist and broadcaster for media such as the ABC, RTRFM and The West Australian newspaper, contributing media content and commentary on art, culture and design. She has also worked for arts organisations such as Fremantle Arts Centre, STRUT dance, and the Aboriginal Arts Centre Hub of WA, as well as being a sessional arts lecturer at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
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