Archinect - News

IAAC team expands on first 3D Printed Earth Forest Campus in Barcelona

2024-07-30T20:15:00-04:00

Archinect has received new project images of the latest 3D printed building prototype produced on-site in Barcelona’s Collserola Natural Park by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC).

The 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) Earth Forest Campus project (also called TEIXIT), which uses local soil and natural materials with a Crane WASP 3D printer, was created in collaboration with Hassell and provides a live laboratory for testing new architectural solutions and sustainable construction methods.

Image: © 3DPA

The team says the "organic spatial distribution" of its design is key to the experiment's success. It stands as proof of concept for the "beginning of a labyrinth that distances itself from repetitive standardized contemporary architectural solutions and demonstrates a high level of adaptation of buildings to their users’ needs."

Image: © 3DPA

The master plan includes a mixture of enclosed, covered, and open spaces supported by natural stone foundations. To...

IAAC/WASP team creates ‘solid and expressive’ 3D printed wall made from earth

2023-02-13T13:17:00-05:00

Barcelona’s IAAC has collaborated with Italian 3D printing company WASP on the creation of a 3D printed earthen wall. The element was printed from a mixture of clay and rice fibers, with interlocking timber beams providing support for stair and floor structures.

The 15.7-inch-thick wall was printed in 40 hours using 70 cubic feet of material. Printed in horizontal layers with voids left for the placement of cantilevering timber elements, the team describes their method as one that can “confer both solidity and aesthetic expressivity.”

The prototype was printed using WASP’s modular 3D printing system titled ‘Crane WASP.’ The machinery is composed of a main printer unit that covers an area of 538 square feet by way of a radial mechanical arm, similar to the operation of a traditional construction crane. The Crane WASP system has also been used to deliver the Mario Cucinella-designed TECLA raw earth home which we reported on in 2021.

Image credit: IAAC / WASP

“This work can be consider...

IAAC team 3D prints a zero-waste housing prototype using local earth

2022-09-12T18:13:00-04:00

Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Italian 3D printer manufacturer WASP have created a building they say is the first made entirely of local materials and 3D printing technology in Spain.

Called "TOVA," the project was developed by a team of students and researchers from the 3D Printing Architecture (3DPA) postgraduate program of IAAC. The endeavor was born out of the institution’s ongoing research to find new ways of facing the social and environmental challenges of the future through its various education and research programs. The structure was conceived as a prototype for sustainable housing that could be built anywhere in the world.

Photo by Gregori Civera

TOVA was constructed at the Valldaura Labs facilities on the outskirts of Barcelona and is part of a larger project in collaboration with WASP that envisions a complete house. Together the teams are exploring the future of housing solutions as the threat of a global housing emergency loom...