Posts tagged: Construction 3D PrintingSustainability

3D printed buildings are popping up in more and more places, like the recent 3 floors apartment building in Germany but so far Africa has been only marginally on the map. 14Trees are about to change that. Established by LafargeHolcim, a world-leading provider of cement and concrete with 70,000 employees, 14Trees is focused on building affordable houses, schools and social infrastructures in Africa.

Thanks to the latest video by Jarett Gross, the untirable explorer of construction 3D printing projects (who has previously contributed to this portal), we found out about a very interesting 3D printed, upcycled cement-wooden structure that may have been initially ignored by those outside the architectural community: the Ashen Cabin by Cornel University and HANNAH Design Office.

After finalizing the 3D printed reefs in the labs of the Civil Engineering School of the University of Cantabria, 3DPARE is deploying them off the Atlantic coasts of England, France and Spain. Portugal is next in line.

In yet another fascinating demonstration of the capabilities of construction 3D printing to rebuild marine habitats, architects and marine scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have jointly developed a novel method for coral restoration making use of specially designed, 3D printed reef tiles. The elegant looking structures can be used by corals to enhance their chance of survival in the Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong waters.

Barberio Colella Architetti and Dr. Angelo Figliola proposed a design to ameliorate temperature perception in Abu Dhabi’s urban microclimates using 3D printed sandstone. The design focuses on a city whose average temperature for 2019 was 28.9 degrees Celsius. The United Arab Emirates’ annual average in 2019 was 29.1 degrees Celsius. The city’s warmest month is August; the architects and Dr. Figliola’s design projects temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius in August. This substantial cooling effect helps make targeted areas more comfortable.

AMT-Specavia, a Russian company specializing in construction 3D printing technologies, is partnering with a team in South Korea with the aim of producing artificial coral reefs for the Yellow Sea. The 3D printing effort, which it utilizing high-strength hydrophobic concrete to create the artificial coral, aims to rehabilitate the quickly deteriorating coral reef ecosystem in the Yellow Sea.

Proponents of construction 3D printing say the technology could be disruptive in the industry, offering a more flexible and cost-friendly way to quickly construct housing. These benefits, along with the ability to construct buildings in remote locations (by working with local building materials), have apparently caught the attention of the Conference Board of Canada which will explore construction 3D printing for building homes in Canada’s northern and indigenous communities.

With all the excitement of Formnext, we missed an important date this week: November 19th, otherwise known as World Toilet Day. No, World Toilet Day isn’t akin to World Pancake Day, it is a real event organized by the United Nations as a call to action to overcome the world’s sanitation crisis. To mark the observance day, SPARK Architects, a Singapore, Shanghai and London-based architecture firm introduced its Big Arse Toilet concept, an easily transportable 3D printed toilet.

In the city of Eindhoven the realization of the first of five planned 3D printed concrete houses will start this year. The project, called Project Milestone, is a world’s first, as the houses will all be occupied. The six parties involved showed the design today.