The First 3D-Printed House Made With Dirt

[Judi Lynn]

The 3D-printed house took 60 cubic meters of natural material and 200 hours to build.
By TERESA CAREY Published 19 minutes ago

An Italian architecture studio and 3D printing company have teamed up to create the first 3D-printed house made from dirt. The environmentally friendly place took just 200 hours to complete. It has a stout shape and curved walls that look remarkably like a sea urchin.

The challenge: The 3D-printed house is the culmination of an assignment at the School of Sustainability: design a sustainable home built with on-site natural materials.

Wasp, Italy's leading 3D printing firm, and Mario Cucinella Architects came up with Tecla — which is short for "technology and clay."

The team built the 60 square meter (roughly 645 square feet) prototype house with local soil in a zero-waste construction process. It didn't require any materials to be transported to the site, avoiding the environmental impact of transportation. The 350-layer 3D-printed house was built with 60 cubic meters of natural material.

More:
https://www.freethink.com/articles/3d-printed-house-with-dirt

[jeffreyi]

1. I want.

[csziggy]

2. Here's the first 3D printed house in the US

Not as innovative style as the Italian one, but more to the taste of Americans.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Amazing. Hope to hear more about this as soon as possible. What an incredible leap. Thanks. 👋

[csziggy]

4. I wonder about the insulation and somewhat about the stability

They talk about filling the void between the "printed" walls and they do put in metal in there, but is that enough to hold the building together in case of earthquake?

When I had my house built I selected insulated concrete form for the structure. The walls are made of foam insulation with plastic struts between the 2.75" insulation sections on each side. As they stack the ICF blocks- the go together a lot like Legos! - then add rebar that snaps into the plastic struts. Once the walls are up, they pump concrete in the middle. It is very strong and with 5.5" of insulation very comfortable whether it is cold or warm outside. With the very strong plastic struts attached to the rebar, the structure is solid.

While I like the idea of the 3D printed house, I don't see anything that holds the concrete exterior walls together. Perhaps there are fibers in the concrete that do that, but it is not discussed in either of the videos posted or in the other video I watched about the American printed house.

Years ago I saw a study that in South America in earthquake zones they have worked with local peoples on improving the stability of the adobe buildings by putting straw in between the blocks. Something like that would increase my confidence in the concrete 3D buildings. Right now, I see nothing similar.