The world's darkest building looks like a starry sky

A designer building in Korea covered the world's blackest material to absorb 99% of visible light.

PyeongChang's Hyundai Pavilion building , South Korea, was designed by architect Asif Khan and inaugurated correctly in the 2018 Winter Olympics to become the darkest building in history, Science Alert reported on February 9. With parabolic walls 10 meters high and 35 meters long, the outer surface of Vantablack VBx 2 covered building, a spray-painted version of.

Vantablack VBx 2 was built by Surrey NanoSystems in the UK, absorbing 99% of all visible light, resulting in black smoked like bottomless pit. Although quite unique, Vantablack material is difficult to apply on surfaces.


South Korea Hyundai Pavilion building.(Video: YouTube).

Vantablack is made up of millions of vertical nanotubes, each about 20 nanometers in diameter (about 3,500 times smaller than the width of a hair) and 14 to 50 microns long (one micron equals 0.001 millimeters). When light hits this nanotube forest, it is trapped and reflected around until it dissipates as heat.

The initial method for coating Vantablack nanotubes onto a material is through chemical vapour deposition . The finished product absorbs 99.6% of all visible, infrared and ultraviolet light.

Subsequently, Surrey NanoSystems invented a spray version of the original material, which could only block visible light with horizontal nanotubes arranged in random order. VBx paint can be used for commercial applications and is chosen to spray onto the Hyundai Pavilion building.

As the sun sinks, the 3D shape of the walls of the building seems to disappear. On the wall are many small sticks with glowing heads like stars on an extreme black background."From a distance the building looks like a window looking at the depth of space , " Khan explained. "When you get close, this impression will invade your entire vision. So when you enter the building, you will feel as if you were sucked into a dark cloud."

Picture 1 of The world's darkest building looks like a starry sky
Hyundai Pavilion in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Inside the building, the interior is completely opposite, purely a glossy white, made from Corian, an artificial facade stone commonly used on kitchen platforms. The entire room is fitted with water lines, with 25,000 drops of water flowing every minute through the waterproof surface.

The tactile sensor allows visitors to interact with the water path, change the rhythm of the water droplets as they blend together and flow towards the lake in the center continuously running out and filling again. According to the designer, this is a vision of a city seen from space. Both parts of the building feature hydrogen fuel cells made by the Hyundai plant, reminiscent of hydrogen in water stars and hydrogen.