The Tecla house is a prototype

3D-printed 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material i ...

eco residential building made out of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. The first model was designed by the Italian architecture studio Mario Cucinella Architects (MCA) and engineered and built by Italian 3D printing specialists

WASP A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

by April 2021, becoming the world's first house 3D-printed entirely from a mixture made from mainly local earth and water. Its name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "technology" and "clay" and that of one of Italo Calvino's

Invisible Cities ''Invisible Cities'' () is a postmodern novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. Description The book is framed as a conversation between the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, and Marco Pol ...

whose construction never ceases.

History

The project was reportedly first conceived by WASP Founder Massimo Moretti and, via research of the Cucinella-founded training center School of Sustainability (SOS), MCA's founder Mario Cucinella. For construction, WASP's 3D printing technology ''Crane WASP'' was used. This 3D printer was used for the similar building "GAIA" – the first 3D printed earth building – completed in 2018, about 7 years after WASP's inception in 2012. Printing started in September 2019. It was developed as a solution that addresses urgent problems, like the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change and their effects. This term and the term ''climate emergency'' have been used to emphasize the threat of global warming to Earth's natural environment an ...

, via application of both ancient materials and techniques, and novel technologies.

Technology and construction

For the building WASP's 3D printing technology ''Crane WASP'' was used. It is the first 3D printer that can print from raw earth and is modular and multilevel. It consists of software and (in 2021) a stationary fixture with two synchronized printer arms that can simultaneously print an area of 50 m² each. The material consists of local soil mixed with water, fibers from rice husks and a

binder Binder may refer to: Businesses * Binder FBM, a former German jewelry manufactory * Binder Dijker Otte & Co., the expansion of "BDO" in BDO International Computing * Binder Project, package and share interactive, reproducible environments * Fil ...

. The infilling material for

thermal insulation Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved with s ...

consists of

rice husk Rice is a cereal grain and in its domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much less commonly, ...

and rice straw from rice cultivation waste. The composition of the mixture and filling of the walls can be optimized depending on local climate. An early phase of the construction is the digging and mixing phase in which a digger digs up local soil which is then analyzed and mixed with water and additives. The house is made up of two modules up to 4.2 m in height, has an area of about 60 m³ and can be built with 200 hours of printing. It uses 7000

G-code G-code (abbreviation for geometric code; also called RS-274, standardized today in ISO 6983-1) is the most widely used computer numerical control (CNC) and 3D printing programming language. It is used mainly in computer-aided manufacturing t ...

machine codes, 350 12 mm layers and 150 km of

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

from the printer arms, for an average consumption of less than 6 kW (total printing output of ~1200 kWh). As with any 3D printed product, the

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

can be modified for improvements and flexible adaptation to different purposes and environments. The buildings are dome-shaped, have a large glass door and are topped with ceiling-windows. As of 2021, the only prototype has no windows and

paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...

on its walls. It was built with collaboration from a number of Italian companies and

Massa Lombarda Massa Lombarda () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ravenna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about east of Bologna and about west of Ravenna. Notable people * Angiolo Torchi (1856-1915), painter Twin towns Massa ...

as an institutional partner.

Uses and problems

The use of local natural materials reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Data and projections indicate an increasing relevance of buildings that are both low-cost and

sustainable Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

, notably that, according to a 2020 UN report, building and construction are responsible for ~38% of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, that, partly due to global warming, migration crises are expected to intensify in the future and that the UN estimates that by 2030, ~3 billion people or ~40% of the world's population will require access to accessible, affordable housing. Buildings like the Tecla prototype could be very cheap, well- insulated, stable and weatherproof, climate-adaptable, customizable, get produced rapidly, require only very little easily learnable manual labor, mitigate carbon emissions from concrete, require less energy, reduce

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

, help enable

intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community designed to foster a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. Such communities typically promote shared values or beliefs, or pursue a common vision, which may be politica ...

such as

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...

eco-communities, and enable the provision of housing for victims of natural disasters as well as – via knowledge- and technology-transfer to local people – for emigrants to Europe near their homes, rather than controversially in distant countries. The prototype is undergoing

structural A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

and thermal performance testing. The machines needed for construction take as much space as the container for shipping and are not mass-produced and inexpensive enough for common individual citizens to afford. Disadvantages of printing with clay-mixtures include height-limitations or horizontal space requirements, latencies due to having to let the mixture dry with current processes, and other problems related to the novelty of the product such as their connection to plumbing systems. While they are unlikely to be relevant for solutions to overpopulation crises such as in China, their early implementations may tend to enable societal innovation through autark communities and displacement- and migration-relief via use by citizens of African and Middle Eastern countries.

References

External links

* * {{cite journal , last1=Heywood , first1=Kate , title=Felted Clay , date=2021 , url=https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/9042193 Environmental technology Building technology Affordable housing 2021 introductions 2021 in technology 2021 neologisms 3D printed buildings Italian inventions Automation in construction Clay Buildings and structures in Emilia-Romagna Houses in Italy

History

Technology and construction

Uses and problems

See also

References

External links