Last month, Gil Namur wrote about the innovation of 3D printing robots constructing a steel bridge in Amsterdam. Gil commented that this sort of pioneering project is ultimately bound to invite endless creative construction and design possibilities. Possibilities that might have existed before 3D printing, but nearly always proved to be arduous, grueling tasks that sapped scores of hours of labour from human beings.
King of the Castle
In Shorewood, Minnesota, Andrey Rudenko completed, in 2014, his 3D printed castle. The castle has been printed using a delicately-blended cement mix. The extruder moves along the construction site following the printer’s schematic; Rudenko had the standard size of his layers for the castle set at 1cm (10mm) high by 3cm (30mm) wide. No doubt other printers and firmware options allow for variant measurements. Rudenko has said that his own printer can be reprogrammed for other measurements. In the video below covering his wondrous garden monument, it is also made clear that the patterns of the turrets are only a few of myriad designs that could be created.
Rudenko’s backyard castle rises to over twelve feet in height, which is of course 360 centimetres— meaning 360 layers of 1cm high cement mix to eventually harden into concrete. As you can descry from the photograph to the right, there are noticeable coarse lines of the layered cement. Beautiful, no?
In China, 3D printers that can engineer the raw concrete structure of ten houses per day are currently being manufactured and mastered. The Chinese are using materials processed from common construction waste, such as sand, concrete and glass fiber. Their finished products, just like Rudenko’s bastion, are layered and consequently have this kind of ‘lozenged’ look, ascending from bottom to top. These houses, like the castle, lack doors and windows, which still, sadly, must be installed by those ‘human being’ things.
In terms of what these creations represent…the mind reels. China’s ‘population crisis’ has been a passive news story for multiple years; this affordable and modern option might one day prove to be one solution. And would they choose to design castles instead of merely houses? I, personally, would be tempted. Rudenko’s castle’s finish, in my opinion, is strangely charming in its appearance. The variegated dried and drying cement adds a strange echo of history to the castle, despite the obviously magnificent marveling of the technology being futuristic.
Check out Rudenko’s website, where progress of a 3D printed house in The Philippines is being followed closely.
Out of the mud and into…the mudcrete!
A pioneering company named WASP (World’s Advanced Saving Project) is conducting experimental research using plant seeds to try to strengthen clay mixes as it works towards 3D printing of houses in developing nations.
In this video, a small scale, four metre-tall printer (their full-size printer is twelve metres tall!) is creating a scaled-down clay structure that is embedded with plant seeds.
The hope behind the experiments is that the seeds, such as the widespreading Bermuda grass, will be able to reinforce the clay from within, in order to strengthen a structure once the mixture has fully dried. The seeds, it is thought by WASP, offer a practical solution to the clay shrinking. Setting with more permanence than before, the clay will be able to be printed in wetter climates, where perhaps before this inexorably-moving futuristic world, rushing rivers and heavy storms might have destroyed the straw and log huts of villages. This could be an alternative. Of course, like Rudenko’s cement castle, WASP’s first obstacle is co-ordinating the perfect mix in order to prevent its printer’s rotating extruder nozzle from becoming clogged. Rudenko cited this as an early problem in his castle’s construction.
In order for these clay-seed compound houses to be successful, protracted co-operation is required between botanical, architectural and 3D printing experts, but perhaps one day in the not-so-far future, countries currently labeled as ‘developing’ will have a cheaper and faster alternative for armouring one’s home against nature!
As Gil said in his article: Absorb this information, watch the videos, and…dare to think big!
Photo credit
Featured Image – Screen captured from video
Please Share Your Thoughts - Leave A Comment!