The high-tech world of 3D printing now has a new, somewhat earthier application: Building mud houses.
An Italian engineer has found a way to merge the latest in human technology with the natural world in creating housing that is sustainable, affordable and environmentally friendly.
Massimo Moretti, who is also a designer and architect, is the founder of an organisation called World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP), which has created a process that builds structures using a 3D printer and specially prepared mud.
WATCH THE VIDEO: How to build a house… with a 3D printer
The stated aim of the WASP project is to make new housing more affordable, particularly in third world countries where the most abundant resource is the earth itself.
To do this, Moretti said he took inspiration from the way wasps build their nests, using many thin layers bonded together.
“Starting from the small format, we’re developing a printer capable of laying down clay, to then move onto a bigger printer for houses at a very low cost and then to rebuilding slums into natural villas. Everything would be environmentally friendly since we’re using earth as a main material,” a statement on the WASP website says.
Moretti and his team have been developing their 3D printing system for the last two years and they hope to eventually create a full scale, 20-foot tall, portable, three-armed printer that can be moved to site – wherever it may be needed – and create full-sized earth and mud houses.
The process for creating the printing mixture uses powdered earth that is mixed with water and fed into the machine. The printer then builds the walls layer-by-layer, mimicking a wasp layering its nest.
As the printer is controlled by computer, the shape and size of the finished 3D-printed house can be anything the designer wishes it to be. Moretti has avowed that the finished structure measures up to most conventional building materials, a report by Green Building Elements added.
WATCH THE VIDEO: How to build a house… with a 3D printer
The engineer demonstrated the efficiency of the process at the 2014 Maker Faire in Rome, where he used a smaller machine to create scale models of houses.
“We have a big goal and we work every day on little things to achieve it,” Moretti said. “Thanks to clay printing, it is possible to make a real self-made production that is practical and commercial.”