3D Printing Buildings From Soil

 3D Printing

Researchers have created a 3D printing robot that uses organic materials and binder to create 3D structures. The Stone Spray project, created by Anna Kulik, Inder Shergill, and Petr Novikov at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, is intended to explore a new way of creating architecture out of soil.

The Stone Spray Project is a research project Stone Spray done by Anna Kulik, Inder Shergill and Petr Novikov under the supervision of Marta Male-Alemany, Jordi Portell and Miquel Lloveras in the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.

The goal of the project was to research the field of additive manufacturing in architecture and to propose a new eco-friendly, efficient and interesting system to print architecture in 3D.

Although making actual buildings is not yet within the robot's abilities, the team has managed to print a series of scaled sculptures (such as stools, pillars and load-bearing arc structures) out of sand, soil and a binding compound. 

"We want to push further the boundaries of digital manufacturing and explore the possibilities of an on-site fabrication machine," the team writes on the project's homepage, citing makeshift printed bridges or an on-beach canopy as possible applications of technology. Additionally, the Stone Spray robot can potentially be powered by solar energy alone.

This Sand Wall experiment showed that the the system can be aplied in the architectural scale. The result represents a part of the wall. It is structurally strong and can support not only itself but even bear a load. Also a script was developed to optimize the structure

As a result a robot and series of samples were created. Also a book describing the project was published.




SOURCE  Boing Boing

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