Italian construction robotics company WASP has finished building Itaca, the country’s first certified 3D printed residential structure, using a four-arm robotic system at its Shamballa laboratory in Northern Italy.
The project integrates additive manufacturing with traditional building materials to create a self-sufficient farm designed to house four people while producing its own food and energy. We first reported on it last summer, when the project was getting underway.
The structure used WASP’s Crane WASP system, which positioned four robotic arms at the vertices of a hexagonal base to print the walls in coordinated circular patterns. The company employed a lime-based printing material for the facades, which it says allows the walls to regulate temperature through natural thermal exchange properties.
Rice husks sourced from agricultural waste filled the printed wall cavities to provide insulation, while radiant heating systems and electrical infrastructure embedded during the printing process eliminated the need for post-construction installation work.
Manufacturing on Demand
The design incorporated passive ventilation that circulates air continuously through interior spaces without mechanical systems – an approach WASP says reduces both energy consumption and maintenance requirements compared to conventional climate control systems.
Itaca included 3D printed vertical hydroponic systems for year-round vegetable production using reduced water consumption, compared to traditional agriculture, according to WASP. The project operated on what the company described as a circular micro-economy model, where waste outputs from one system serve as inputs for others.
The Crane WASP system was designed to function in remote locations with minimal infrastructure requirements, relying on locally sourced materials and digital construction files that can be transmitted and adapted for different geographic contexts.
The project was executed by WASP 3D Build, the company’s construction-focused division, using technology the company described as proven and commercially available rather than experimental. The structure drew design inspiration from mandala geometry and incorporated principles from vernacular architecture traditions that have used lime and agricultural waste in construction for centuries.
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Author: Joseph Caron-Dawe
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