Talk:Living building material

Living Building Materials Class Project

Hi Wikipedians! We (myself, Lauren burr, TahsinRPI, Jankoj2, Samichya1) are a group of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students working on a WikiEd project for our Biology in Materials Science course. We intend to expand this article to include the synthesis/fabrication, properties, and uses of the three main examples of living building materials: self-mending biocement, self-replicating concrete, and mycelium-based composites. More updates to come soon!

Kfbrigham (talk) 16:30, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

Very cool. Have fun, and feel free to bring any questions you may have here. I'll be following your work! François Robere (talk) 21:49, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

Hello again Wikipedians! Just as an update we have made outlines of the expansions we mentioned in our first update involving synthesis/fabrication, properties and uses of the three main examples of living building materials. We also plan on adding a history section, an advantages and disadvantages section, and further applications section on living building materials. Thanks for reading and let us know if you have any thoughts or critiques! — Preceding unsigned comment added by TahsinRPI (talk • contribs) 18:26, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

History

Hi folks! I've added in a "History" section per our outline, detailing the origins of the field and major sources of progress and funding in the United States and United Kingdom. Excited for feedback! Kfbrigham (talk) 18:46, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Self-Replicating concrete

Hello everyone, I plan on adding the section on self-replicating concrete within the next few days. I elaborate on the formation, mechanical properties, and potential uses for the material. Let me know of any feedback. Jankoj2 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 01:03, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Hello again! I just went live with the Self-Replicating concrete section. Let me know of any feedback! Jankoj2 (talk) 19:23, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Two image captions are not supported by the file descriptions

Two images in this article carry captions that go well beyond what their Commons file descriptions support.

File:Calcite lace SEM.jpg is captioned here as showing "calcium carbonate crystals formed via microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP)", with further detail about nucleation and ionic transport through porous media. The Commons description, written by the uploader, reads in full: "SEM photo showing calcite rafts". The file sits in c:Category:Calcite rafts and in geology categories, and nothing in its description mentions microorganisms. Calcite rafts are a speleothem feature.

File:Miliolid wall SEM.png is captioned here as "microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation", reading "(p)" as rod-shaped calcite crystals growing on "(e)", "likely composed of bacterial biofilm or organic substrates". The Commons description, from the uploader Zofia Dubicka, identifies the image as the ultrastructure in the calcite test of the miliolid foraminifera Ophthalmidium carinatum Pazdro, 1958, from the Jurassic of Gnaszyn, Poland, where "e" is the extrados (outer lining) and "p" is the porcelain layer of needle-like calcite crystals. That is foraminiferal biomineralisation by a protist, not bacterial MICP.

I came across this while looking for images for the Hebrew article on the same subject, and stopped short of reusing them. I have no strong view on whether the right fix is re-captioning or removal, so I am raising it here rather than editing the article myself. Karmona21 (talk) 12:28, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

"Self-replicating concrete" rests on a single 2020 primary source

The whole of the "Self-replicating concrete" section — synthesis, properties and uses — is cited to a single reference, Heveran et al. (2020) in Matter. That was the paper that established the material, but it is one primary lab study, and the section has not been updated since. The article states, for example, that "as the bacteria reproduce, their biomineralization activity increases; this allows production capacity to scale exponentially", sourced only to that paper. The words "viability" and "encapsulation" appear nowhere in the article, and there is nothing on how these materials behave outside a laboratory.

Several later sources bear on that gap:

• Dranseike, Cui et al., "Dual carbon sequestration with photosynthetic living materials", Nature Communications 16:3832 (2025), ETH Zurich. Photosynthetic living material using Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 in a printable hydrogel, sequestering CO2 both as biomass and as carbonate via MICP: 26 ± 7 mg CO2 per gram of hydrogel over 400 days, with cells viable beyond a year. The strongest of these sources, and it would support both a longevity statement and the carbon-sequestration angle the article lacks entirely.
• Reinhardt, Ihmann, Ahlhelm & Gelinsky, "3D bioprinting of mineralizing cyanobacteria as novel approach for the fabrication of living building materials", Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (2023), TU Dresden. Extrusion bioprinting of the same strain in alginate–methylcellulose with up to 50 wt% sand; post-print viability 86.8–92.6%, air-dried material reaching 50.1 ± 6.3 MPa compressive stress. Would support a fabrication-methods paragraph, which the article does not currently have.
• Armaly, Iliassafov, Kirzner, Kashi & Barath, "Prototyping an additive cofabrication workflow for architecture utilizing cyanobacterial MICP in robotic deposition", Research Directions: Biotechnology Design (2023). Robotic deposition at architectural scale.
• Armaly, Shachor, Berger, Iliassafov, Rosenblau, Kashi & Barath, "Biodesign approaches for photosynthetic microbial applications in architecture", Biotechnology Design (2026), doi:10.1017/S2977905726100961. Encapsulation for long-term microbial viability, a design-led fabrication workflow, and on-site cultivation under variable environmental conditions. Currently an accepted manuscript, so it should carry correspondingly little weight.

Possibly also relevant, though I have not read them closely: "Photosynthetic living building material: effect of the initial population of cyanobacteria on fixation of CO2 and mechanical properties", Construction and Building Materials (2023), and a manufacturing protocol in STAR Protocols (2024).

Disclosure: my partner is a co-author of the 2026 paper listed above, so I have a conflict of interest here and am not editing the article myself — see my user page. I have listed the sources in what I take to be their order of weight rather than leading with that one, and I would rather the section were updated from the stronger sources even if the 2026 paper is left out entirely. Karmona21 (talk) 12:44, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

Response: 2026-09-13

Not done for now: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Please see WP:CHANGEXY for details. I have added the sources given to {{Refideas}} (and thank you for providing them), or if you would like to take a stab at drafting a specific addition/replacement text, you can reopen this and someone will take a look. Packrat3860 (talk) 22:42, 13 September 2026 (UTC)