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Chimneys that change colour to keep industrial air polluters in check
and roads that warn drivers of icy conditions are among the pipe dreams
of seven design students told to let their imaginations run riot on uses
for ‘smart materials’. These substances, such as the photochromic glass
that allows sunglasses to turn transparent in the shade, have properties
which allow them to adapt to changing conditions.

The seven students, from Glasgow School of Art, came up with a multitude
of new applications to mark the first European conference on smart materials
in Glasgow last week. ‘We wanted an exhibit that would make delegates debate
. . . W e hoped they would come up with abstract areas for exploiting smart
materials,’ says Alaster McDonach of the Smart Structures Research Institute
at the University of Strathclyde and an organiser of the conference.

Scott Dougall, one of the seven designers, envisages industrial chimneys
made with smart materials that change colour when the concentration of pollutants
in their emissions breaches authorised limits. Everyone for miles around
will see. ‘The conscious chimney’s my favourite,’ says Peter Gardiner, director
of the institute.

Stuart Bailey foresees road signs made of smart materials that sense
dangerous road conditions and change colour to warn motorists, while Jack
Gordon imagines the road surface changing colour. Ice, for example, would
turn the road red.

Engineers are excited enough about at least two of the ideas to think
of putting them into practice. One is ‘active insulation’ that regulates
the heat held in a house. The other is a material for industrial moulds
which would go soft after casting, making moulded objects easy to retrieve.