There are some great biotechnologies which could really impact how we build – from ‘bio-cement’, to ‘self-healing concrete’, to ‘microalgae façades’:
innovation in architecture: living materials from biotechnology – Sidmouth Solarpunk
And then there is 3D-printing – where you can print your own house – and out of natural materials:
the future is 3-d – Sidmouth Solarpunk
Print your own house – Vision Group for Sidmouth
These ideas are coming together – with the latest from today’s Arch Daily:
Can you imagine a world in which the built environment around us is 3D printed from living materials? That buildings will germinate, bloom, wither, produce new kinds of material, and eventually return back to the soil? To Grow a Building is a performative lab space that 3D prints – in real time – a live structure. The project presents a new approach to integrating flora into the design process, by developing a novel material for 3D printing, through which seeding is an inseparable part of the fabrication process. To Grow a Building is a gate into a future world in which there are people who build buildings, and there are people who grow them.
…the notion of 3D printing from living materials has been explored through other projects as well. Located in Massa Lombarda (Ravenna, Italy), Mario Cucinella Architects and Wasp, Italy’s leading 3D printing company, had previously completed the first house to be 3D printed from raw earth using a process called TECLA (technology and clay).
With more on TECLA here:
Dig then print your own house – Vision Group for Sidmouth
TELCA Technology and Clay 3D printed house/Mario Cucinella Architects. Image copyright Mario Corazza
3D printed house TECLA – Eco-housing – 3D Printers | WASP
There are reservations, however, with this comment from a local observer:
Not sure I think this is a good idea, the amount of heat you would have to provide to keep an ‘earth and plant’ house warm would be prohibitive 🙂 As an outer layer it could work but what would you use as an inner damp proof layer? Any nonporous layer would create condensation problems.