It is an intriguing idea.
If it works, it would be a significant advance in the construction of a building.
But there are two problems.
First, the method has only been tested in a small number of buildings, with no plans to scale it up.
And second, it is not yet clear that it works as well as a conventional method of flooring, which relies on friction to push material onto a flat surface.
“It is not really a good idea to test a product for effectiveness,” says Rachael Condon, a lecturer in building science at the University of Nottingham.
She suggests that building scientists could start with some experiments to find out how well flooring works in general.
In the past, it has been possible to use mechanical engineering to design flooring.
The process involves a series of rigid and flexible pieces that are rolled on top of each other to form a smooth surface, and then subjected to a series inversion steps, which cause the rolling to rotate the joints.
That approach has some problems, says Peter Williams, an expert in flooring at the London School of Economics.
“You can’t make a smooth floor because you can’t hold the pieces on the bottom of the floor,” he says.
“A very expensive and complicated process would be needed to make a very smooth floor.”
This means the idea of a flooring with friction is not going to work.
“We have seen that flooring materials are not durable, and we are not sure what we can do to make them better,” says Williams.
“They need to be able to withstand extreme conditions and pressures.”
This might mean designing materials that would be harder to roll on a flat, rather than softer materials, like ceramic.
“There is a big problem in materials science,” says Richard Smith, an author of a new book on the subject.
“Some materials have poor thermal conductivity.”
He says that the new material could potentially be used to fabricate the very best floors for a given space.
The new material, called laminate, has a surface that can be glued to a floor and has a low surface area.
It can also be cut and glued to other surfaces and has high thermal conductance.
This is because the laminate is much thinner than a typical floor, says Smith.
This means it is much easier to build flooring that is not prone to tearing or cracking under high loads.
“If you are designing a building, you need to think about whether it’s going to be used in a building or a house,” says Smith, who was not involved in the research.
“So we are trying to make laminate flooring.”
In the UK, this work is funded by the Department for Transport, and is now being conducted in a series by the London Architecture Foundation.
