By now, it's common knowledge that times have been tough for Santiago Calatrava—see here, here, and here. But perhaps most embarrassing for the architect is the lawsuit filed by his native hometown of Valencia, Spain. During high winds in December, pieces of the Calatrava's grand Palau de les Arts, which cost €1 billion to build, began to fall off. The opera house was forced to shut down indefinitely—just eight years after its completion!—as the crumbling façade left the underlying ribbing exposed. But alas, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the deteriorating opera house and Calatrava's compounding woes. According to Inhabitat, the Alicante-based company Graphenano claims that its product could save the building and significantly mitigate costs. A mixture of limestone powder and a new material called graphene, which is essentially made of a thin sheet of bonded carbon atoms. Graphenstone is a super-strong paint that acts as a supporting mesh on a molecular level that can protect the building against environmental disturbances. While the future of the Calatrava vs. Valencia chronicle remains unclear, Graphenano's proposal highlights a next-generation material that has seems to have limitless possibilities ...
By now, it's common knowledge that times have been tough for Santiago Calatrava—see here, here, and here. But perhaps most embarrassing for the architect is the lawsuit filed by his native hometown of Valencia, Spain. During high winds in December, pieces of the Calatrava's grand Palau de les Arts, which cost €1 billion to build, began to fall off. The opera house was forced to shut down indefinitely—just eight years after its completion!—as the crumbling façade left the underlying ribbing exposed. But alas, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the deteriorating opera house and Calatrava's compounding woes. According to Inhabitat, the Alicante-based company Graphenano claims that its product could save the building and significantly mitigate costs. A mixture of limestone powder and a new material called graphene, which is essentially made of a thin sheet of bonded carbon atoms. Graphenstone is a super-strong paint that acts as a supporting mesh on a molecular level that can protect the building against environmental disturbances. While the future of the Calatrava vs. Valencia chronicle remains unclear, Graphenano's proposal highlights a next-generation material that has seems to have limitless possibilities ...