Researchers at the Technical University of Dresden have been working with German architecture firm Henn to create the first concrete building to be reinforced with carbon fibres instead of steel.
Currently under construction at the TU Dresden university campus in Germany, The Cube is billed as the “world’s first building made of carbon concrete”.
Building reinforced with carbon fibre
This newly developed type of concrete offers the same structural strength as concrete reinforced with steel rebar but uses far less concrete, researchers claim.
The concrete is strengthened with carbon fibre yarn, which is made by binding together many carbon fibres – ultra-thin threads of almost pure carbon crystals – using a process of thermal decomposition called pyrolysis.
These yarns are used to create a mesh that the concrete is poured onto.
