Walls have feelings too: A sensitive concrete structure that responds to your touch

It could sound the death knell for the humble light switch. No more pawing around trying to find one in the dark.

Two 3D printing companies – one German-based, and the other in the UAE – have teamed up to create a concrete wall that responds to human touch, by turning lights on or off.

All you have to do is, quite literally, put a hand on the part of the wall’s hexagonal structure – much like a touch-sensitive lamp. There are three LED lights positioned at the top with capacitive sensors  embedded in the concrete. The sensors are connected to the lights by cables which are contained in the 3D printed formwork inside.

It’s put together using a concrete casting process, with the moulds made by a 3D printer.

One of the companies, NOWLab, is part of a larger 3D printing organisation, and it worked in conjunction with Immensa Technology Labs, a UAE-based company with the goal of advancing 3D printing in the region.

Immensa has big plans for the future, with the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy gearing up for 25 per cent of its new buildings to be 3D printed by 2025.

While we’re waiting for “walls with feelings” to come to our much-anticipated homes of the future, another home-tech designer has expressed his thoughts around the future of lighting.

Sir James Dyson, the British inventor behind the fancy vacuum cleaners we can’t afford, told Recode in an interview that he thought light switches could be made obsolete by the smart home.

“Lights are going to get very interesting because of your circadian rhythm and that kind of thing,” he said. “The idea that you come in and switch on the light is in the past. You don’t need that, so you can save the light switch.”