Scientists from the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) are working to create 'smart bricks' for the construction industry.

The research team is working to develop the materials as part of the €3.2 million European 'Living Architecture' (LIAR) project led by Newcastle University.

The 'smart bricks' will be capable for recycling wastewater and generating electricity. Made up from bio-reactors, the bricks will fit together and create 'bioreactor walls' which could be utilised in housing, public buildings and office spaces.

Each brick will contain Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) containing a variety of micro-organisms specifically chosen to clean water, reclaim phosphate, generate electricity and facilitate the production of new detergents. The MFCs will make up the loving engine of the wall of smart bricks which will be able to sense the surroundings and respond to them appropriately.

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Professor Andrew Adamatzky, LIAR Project Director for UWE Bristol, said the technoligies being developed "aim to transform the places where we live and work".

"A building made from bio-reactors will become a large-scale living organism that addresses all environmental and energy needs of the occupants," he said.

"Walls in buildings comprised of smart bricks containing bioreactors will integrate massive-parallel computing processors where millions of living creatures sense the occupants in the building and the internal and external environmental conditions.

"Each smart brick is an electrical analogous computer. A building made of such bricks will be a massive-parallel computing processor."

Rachel Armstrong, Professor of Experimental Architecture at Newcastle University, UK, added: "The LIAR project is incredibly exciting – it is bringing together living architecture, computing and engineering to find a new way to tackle global issues, like sustainability."

(LM/CD)