📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Liam Quinn from Canada
Science
Penguin‑Inspired Smart Building Skin Switches Between Heating and Cooling
✍️ Hindustan Times
🗓 29 Sep 2026, 08:17 AM
👁 13
Scientists have engineered a building façade that emulates penguin feather structure, enabling it to alternate between heating and cooling modes.
Scientists have developed a new smart building skin that draws inspiration from the micro‑structure of penguin feathers, which help the birds maintain body temperature in freezing waters.
The façade is made of a responsive material that can change its thermal properties, allowing the building to switch between heating and cooling depending on external conditions.
By providing passive temperature regulation, the technology promises to cut energy consumption and reduce heating and cooling costs for commercial and residential structures.
Researchers are now working on scaling the prototype and testing its performance in real‑world building environments.
The façade is made of a responsive material that can change its thermal properties, allowing the building to switch between heating and cooling depending on external conditions.
By providing passive temperature regulation, the technology promises to cut energy consumption and reduce heating and cooling costs for commercial and residential structures.
Researchers are now working on scaling the prototype and testing its performance in real‑world building environments.