  Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) are an exciting category of material that
has tremendous application potential across a variety of fields, owing to their
unique properties that enable both sensing and actuation. To some, LCEs are
simply another type of Shape Memory Polymer, while to others they are an
interesting on-going scientific experiment. In this visionary article, we bring
an interdisciplinary discussion around creative and impactful ways that LCEs
can be applied in the Built Environment to support kinematic and kinetic
buildings and situational awareness. We focus particularly on the autonomy made
possible by using LCEs, potentially removing needs for motors, wiring and
tubing, and even enabling fully independent operation in response to natural
environment variations, requiring no power sources. To illustrate the
potential, we propose a number of concrete application scenarios where LCEs
could offer innovative solutions to problems of great societal importance, such
as autonomous active ventilation, heliotropic solar panel systems which can
also remove snow or sand autonomously, and invisible coatings with strain
mapping functionality, alerting residents in case of dangerous (static or
dynamic) loads on roofs or windows, as well as assisting building safety
inspection teams after earthquakes.
