Nanotechnology in Architecture

So while search through hundreds of pages about reponsive architecture, turing down the vast majority of them due to a lack of connection to the user, I found something that could be exactly what I am looking for in this project. That is:
                            Nanotechnology
Sensing architecture summed up the implications this filed could have on architecture in 2 separate posts about the subject (links can be found at the bottom of this post), in which Maria Lorena Lehman identified Nanotechnology as having the potential to greatly impact architecture as we know it, through the development of new building materials, such as Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes. These materials would replace traditional building materials such as steel, and have the potential to create buildings that are extremely efficient and possibly do not require structure in the way modern buildings do. All of this can be found in the Sensing Architecture articles. 

The properties of nanotechnology that interested me most were the strength and adaptability it could potentially produce. Carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger then steel, and even have the potential to change the state of matter to alter the building. The potential effects of nanotechnology can be seen in Year 2050: Cities in the age of Nanotechnology by Peter Yeadon, and include things such as water purification and molecular self assembly. It is at this point, when looking into the future at what nanotechnology could possibly provide, that it becomes hard to distinguish the line between architectural fiction and science-fiction. 

So from here I need to talk to Davor, to find some direction with this project and to determine how far into nanotechnology and the potential it has I should go. With many of the benefits of this technology years away, and the future scenario set in the year 2032 (thinking about going back to 2035, but we will see), I am unsure of just how much I should envision for the future.

What I am leaning towards doing at this point, is making the function of upper portion of my building (a skyscraper) a Nanotechnology Research and Development Centre, with the focus on the lower parts of the buidling remaining a Maglev Station, Public Space and retail areas. This would be a viable function for a building in the future, as nanotechnology has the potential to effect several sectors of the economy, creating new products, new jobs and new industries" (Yeadon), which means placement in a prime location in one of the nations fastest growing cities would be a good idea. It also means, as the building would be a marketing tool of sorts, the technologies and building techniques used in the building would be of the highest possible standard, far ahead of the general practice at the time. This means that I can potentially justify the use of technologies that are vastly different to those of today, to create something that is innovative and imaginative. 

One thing that I am focused on is looking at people in the future and the way that they go about their lives, both around and within the architecture. This is something that I do not expect to change dramatically, even with drastically different technologies. If you look 30 years into the past, people were not behaving all that differently, they just had different things. Newspapers have been replaced with smartphones, boardgames with video games  etc. The building that I am creating will take that into account, and accommodate and improve on the way people live today, not attempt to change the way people live. 

Sensing Architecture Nanotechnology Articles:

http://sensingarchitecture.com/6779/uses-of-nanotechnology-for-architectural-design-the-graphene-skin/

http://sensingarchitecture.com/523/nanotechnology-and-new-materials-for-architecture/

Year 2050: Cities in the age of Nanotechnology

http://worldarchitecture.org/uia2005/hng/year-2050.html

Other articles relating to Nanotechnology.

http://greendimensions.wikidot.com/nanotechnology-in-architecture
bucky balls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminsterfullerene
fullerenes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene