Optic fibers are placed as sensors to track the forces impinging on the structure as well as its internal states during manufacture, installation and use. These sensors provide information to embedded micro-controllers that record and process it. Actuators, such as shape memory alloy wires, are included to counteract forces or damp vibrations as directed by the embedded controllers. This results in a material with enhanced structural properties. Material that has the ability to sense, record, decide and react.
Materials used in architecture are crude by comparison.
Bulk materials are stacked, poured, rolled or extruded into shapes and sawn to size. Site assembly methods are inexact processes undertaken in uncontrolled conditions. Composite structures represent a significant increase in capability. Analytic techniques are used for the definition and decomposition of the problem which is then solved as a series of relatively isolated tasks - a specialized material becomes integrated into the larger scale component to accommodate each function. This approach is in many respects similar to the way in which contemporary architectural and civil structures are composed.