DARPA to develop materials for Self-Healing Infrastructure

Is it possible one day that crack on the wall of a house will self-repair? OR soil eating up oil spilled on it? OR buildings even growing (the way plants do) on site?

These and more are things that may be possible if the eventual goals of Engineered Living Materials (ELM) are achieved.

According to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA,) the ELM programme is being developed "with a goal of creating a new class of materials that combine the structural properties of traditional building materials with attributes of living systems". They intend to achieve this by fusing growth properties found in living organisms like corals, bones and barks into building materials so they can be self maintaining and adjust themselves to their environment.

So, Perhaps, maybe one day, when you want to build a house, you may just "plant" it in the morning and return to the complete building in the evening (or 365 evenings later?)

You can see the article here and tell me what you think in the comments section.

Image courtesy of DARPA