I recently found out about Litracon, and man does it seem like a great green invention. Blocks made of Litracon have the strength of standard concrete, but also have a system o’ embedded fiber optics that allow light to come through the blocks.
Litracon Inventor
Litracon was recently invented by Hungarian Áron Losonczi, who had this to say about his light-transmitting concrete: “Thousands of optical glass fibers form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of every block. Shadows on the lighter side will appear with sharp outlines on the darker one. Even the colours remain the same. This special effect creates the general impression that the thickness and weight of a concrete wall will disappear.”
Benefits of Litracon
You can even build very thick walls with Litracon, as the light can be transmitted up to 20 meters through the concrete with no loss of brightness. If more and more buildings begin using this technology, more natural light can be used to light offices and stores. This could lead to huge drops in the amount of electricity used to light buildings, since they’d be naturally lit during the day. Also, people who get exposure to the sun are generally happier and more productive, so that is another reason for businesses to use this light-transmitting concrete.
I’m excited to see if Litracon catches on in the construction world. If you know of any real-life examples of someone building with Litracon, please let me know.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
This is pretty cool, but there’s no way that concrete should ever be considered a green product. Making the stuff requires enormous amounts of energy.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Well, I was just thinking about that. If it takes a lot of energy to make something, but then that product saves a ton of energy throughout its lifetime, then I’d consider it a green product. I think Litracon falls into that category.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:00 am
This has got to cost sooo much money!
August 18th, 2008 at 6:15 am
It’s pretty impressive, but still it looks like the light passing through isn’t enough for someone to, say, read a book. How about the costs of it compared to regular concrete?
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
[...] Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [...]
June 12th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Who do I contact to build a house with it in the Philippines?