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While the government has doled out grant money to research 3D printing capabilities in space, and several proof-of-concept projects from bridges to Army barracks have garnered headlines, the applied use of 3D printing in commercial construction remains nascent.
Patti Harburg-Petrich, principal in the Los Angeles office of U.K.-based engineering firm Buro Happold, says the real culprit is likely one that all new building innovations are forced to navigate: the building code itself.
— Construction Dive
Harburg-Petrich pointed to the limitations of rebar on a recent design-build she advised at Woodbury University as evidence of the negative influence of building code restrictions, even in research and development. She also predicted airport design to be a potential growth sector and said the... View full entry
A study published then in the journal Materials Today shed light on the world’s first 3D-printed lab-grown wood. By the means of this research, the scientist at MIT demonstrated that deforestation is no longer needed to produce timber. — Interesting Engineering
The researchers developed customizable wood using the cells of a flowering plant named Zinnia elegans, known commonly as zinnia. They first treated the cells with a liquid medium and then a gel solution composed of hormones and nutrients. The researchers adjusted the concentration of the hormones... View full entry
2022 was another productive year in laboratories across the United States and beyond, as colleges, manufacturers, and startups strove to challenge the orthodoxy of construction materials. While teams of students and researchers at institutions from Virginia Tech to ETH Zurich sought to push the... View full entry
Following last week’s look at an opening for an Unreal Engine Rendering Artist at PHNTM, we are using our Job Highlights series this week to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Robotics Fabrication Lab Manager at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). The position, located within... View full entry
3D printing company ICON has been awarded funding by NASA to develop lunar surface construction systems. The $57.2 million contract was awarded under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program and will see ICON develop “space-based construction technology” with the aim of creating... View full entry
The University of Maine has unveiled what it claims to be the world’s first 3D printed home made entirely with bio-based materials. The home, developed by the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC), measures 600 square feet and features walls, floors, and a roof made of... View full entry
Construction has commenced on the largest community of 3D printed residences in the United States. The hundred-home 'Wolf Ranch' development was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and 3D printing technology group ICON and is being constructed in the city of Georgetown, Texas, just north of... View full entry
Research engineers at Stanford University have developed a 3D printing method that is "five to ten times faster than the quickest high-resolution printer currently available and is capable of using multiple types of resin in a single object." The team's design research and findings were... View full entry
A group of faculty and students from ETH Zurich has completed a prototype architectural pavilion whose production merges 3D printing with computational design. Unveiled at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the Eggshell Pavilion’s development seeks to demonstrate how "digital design techniques... View full entry
AI concrete startup AICrete has announced that it has raised $4 million in seed funding led by venture capital firms CLEAR Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures, along with Cortical Ventures. AICrete is a recipe-as-a-service platform that optimizes materials for cleaner and more cost-efficient... View full entry
An international team of researchers from Imperial College London and the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technology have developed autonomous, bee-inspired 3D-printing drones. They would work in fleets, cooperatively building and repairing structures while flying. The... View full entry
Construction is underway in Houston on the first multistory 3D printed building in the United States. Designed by two assistant professors of architecture at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP), the two-story, single-family home merges 3D printed... View full entry
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... View full entry
Montana has become the first state in the nation to adopt broad-ranging regulatory approval for the use of 3D printing in construction. The state’s building code regulators recently voted to approve local contractor Tim Stark’s request to 3D print walls as an equal replacement for either... View full entry
Researchers at MIT have developed a type of 3D printed material that can sense how it is moving and interacting with its surrounding environment. The 3D printed lattice materials contain networks of air-filled channels, allowing engineers to detect when bending, squeezing, or stretching of the... View full entry
