Lavaforming: Using volcanic eruptions for sustainable building materials

Lavaforming: Using volcanic eruptions for sustainable building materials/iStock

VoM News Desk | September 17, 2024 | 03:41 PM IST | Science & Technology, World | Follow on Google News

Lavaforming: Using volcanic eruptions for sustainable building materials

Lavaforming: Using volcanic eruptions for sustainable building materials

Rupendra Brahambhatt

An architect named Arnhildur Pálmadóttir proposes that flowing lava could be used to construct building foundations in the future. 

She is currently working on a project called Lavaforming, which will provide details on how lava can be used as a sustainable construction material. The project will be presented at Biennale Architettura 2025, an international architecture exhibition set to take place in Venice next year.

Pálmadóttir operated an architecture studio in Iceland, a country that experiences high volcanic activity. She has spent a lot of time observing erupting volcanoes and always wondered if the lava from these eruptions could be put to use.  

Meanwhile, as an architect, she was also searching for construction materials that could make construction activities sustainable in Iceland. 

“We were investigating what could be the most natural building material in Iceland as we are not rich in natural resources like trees and clay which is used for building materials in other countries,” Pálmadóttir told World Architecture Community.

This is when the idea of Lavaforming struck her.

Turning lava into buildings and cities

Lavaforming is a concept that tells the story of a society in the year 2,150. This futuristic society has discovered a way to use lava as construction material. 

The story suggests that lava flowing out from a volcano given the right direction can be used to lay the foundation of not just buildings but entire cities.

“A lava flow can contain enough building material for the foundations of an entire city to rise in a matter of weeks without harmful mining and non-renewable energy generation,” Pálmadóttir said.

She suggests that there are two possible ways to harness the flowing lava. The first approach involves drilling boreholes to reach molten lava into the Earth’s surface. 

Once the lava begins to erupt, it will be channeled through controlled pathways to production facilities where it will be processed to make construction material. 

“By drilling into a magma chamber that is slowly approaching the surface, lava is pumped up in a controlled way and extracted to reduce the underground tension in the area and at the same time the liquid lava is channeled into production stations that mold the lava into shapes and formwork for modular construction,” Pálmadóttir added.

The second method suggests the use of 3D printing. The lava flowing during an eruption could be directed into special 3D printers capable of holding molten lava and turning it into layers of construction material. “Researchers at MIT are working on 3D printing with molten glass, so the technology is already there,” according to Pálmadóttir.

However, Lavaforming is still at the concept stage, and the above-mentioned methods have not been tested in real-world settings. The goal of this project is to show that creative thinking and innovation have the potential to make construction activities sustainable anywhere in the world. 

The hidden potential of “Lavaforming”

Pálmadóttir suggests that if humans continue to produce and use construction materials like concrete, timber, bricks, and steel, at the current pace, there is no way we can limit Earth’s temperature at the 1.5°C threshold.

On the other hand, governments and construction companies can’t stop development activities that involve constructing new roads, highways, buildings, and cities. Therefore, it is crucial to find practical alternatives to currently used construction materials.

Lava has the potential to become one of those alternatives. This is because using lava as a building material has two major advantages. First, it can lead to reduced carbon emissions linked to construction activities. 

Second, since flowing lava can lay the foundation of a city in weeks, it can drastically reduce the time that goes into making buildings and roads. Plus, directing the lava straight to a production facility could allow us to minimize the damage volcanic eruptions cause. 

Moreover, similar to concrete, molten lava also contains minerals like silica and calcium (in varying quantities though). When it cools down, these materials turns it into hard and strong igneous rocks, suggesting that lava also has the potential to give rise to rock-solid durable buildings.

However, before scientists learn to use and process lava, there’s one big challenge. They need to figure out ways to extract it safely and without causing any disturbance in Earth’s underground structure.

Hopefully, architects and researchers will find a feasible way to use lava as a construction material way before 2150.

VoM News Desk

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