Harnessing the power of moldless manufacturing through large-scale robotic 3D printing, research at ETH Zürich in collaboration with FenX AG delves into the use of cement-free mineral foam made from recycled waste. The objective is to build wall systems that are monolithic, lightweight, and immediately insulated, minimizing material use, labor requirements, and associated costs.
How are contemporary homes pushing the boundaries of innovation for the future? Currently, these spaces tend towards clean lines, neutral colors and flexible spaces, with the integration of technological features and automation. But even though there are certain timeless features that define neutral contemporary interiors, we can begin to identify future trends by analyzing architectural projects that differ from the traditional, recognizing disruptive interior materials and finishes guided by technological advances that are shaping complex and changing homes of the future. The selection of these innovative materials conveys a meticulous decision process in building the structure and identity of a space. Depending on the context and typology of a space, there is a growing awareness of how materials impact an environment, and how new technologies are creating smart solutions that can mitigate their effects indoors.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a key role in visualizing the interiors of the homes of the future, and together with the exploration of biophilic, intelligent and 3D-printed materials, is stimulating new ways of approaching how we will live indoors moving forward.
From inflatable and 3D-printed structures to entire habitats, architecture plays an unprecedented role in space exploration missions. As NASA plans for long-term human exploration of the Moon and Mars under Artemis and CHAPEA missions, new technologies are required to meet the unique challenges of living and working in another world. In response, figures like Buckminster Fuller, Foster + Partners, SOM, and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, in collaboration with emerging businesses such as ICON and SEArch+, have nourished the architectural catalog in outer space.
In the latest update, NASA awarded Austin-based company ICON a contract to continue ICON's Olympus construction system in partnership with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. The project will help build infrastructures such as landing pads, habitats, capsules, and roads on the lunar surface and Mars, using extrusion-based additive construction technology (3D printing) and local materials like lunar regolith. The contract runs through 2028 and supports Artemis, a mission for long-term human exploration of the Moon.
Hospitality expert Liz Lambert has announced a collaboration with ICON, the office that pioneered large-scale 3D printing, and BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, to rebuild El Cosmico, a campground hotel in Marfa, Texas. The team plans to relocate the venue to a 62 acres plot, where new architectural approaches are made possible by including advanced technologies and 3D-printing elements such as domes, vaults, and parabolic forms. The innovative development will feature guest accommodation and new hospitality programming, including a pool, spa, and shared communal facilities. The project is expected to break ground in 2024.
By emulating manual manufacturing techniques, 3D printing utilizes digital models to create customized three-dimensional objects through an additive production process. This tool enables architecture to explore innovative forms, structures, and materialities, providing new paths for creative thinking. Progressively expanding its limits, 3D printing is integrating other existing technologies to unlock new uses and typologies. Such is the case with the work of Philipp Aduatz, which combines 3D printed textured structures with LED lighting, adding a new layer of complexity to enable the creation of the world's first 3D printed film studio.
“Our planet is choking in plastic,” states the United Nations. While the man-made material has many valuable uses, our addiction to single-use plastic products has led to severe economic, health and environmental issues. Roughly one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, and five trillion plastic bags are used every year worldwide –used just once, then thrown away. Plastics and microplastics have found their way into every corner of our natural environment, from the peaks of the highest mountains to the depths of the deepest oceans. So much so, that they have become part of the Earth’s fossil record and created an entirely new marine microbial habitat known as the “plastisphere.”
Can you imagine being able to prototype a piece of furniture at the touch of a button and testing it in just a few hours? This might become a common practice sooner than we may think. Fueled by material innovation, automation and cutting-edge technology, a new era in home decor is emerging; one where 3D printing opens up a world of creative possibilities that transcend the bounds of traditional design. Yes, furniture is still mass-produced using conventional methods –molding, cutting, bending–, but 3D printing continues to disrupt the industry. As the revolutionary technology evolves and becomes more accessible, it has unleashed an unparalleled level of creative expression and efficiency. The concept is simple: a digital design is created using 3D modeling software and then printed, layer by layer, in the form of a physical object, bringing complex geometries to life. It’s a whole new kind of digital craftsmanship.
In an effort to address the architecture industry’s environmental impact, Henning Larsen is presenting the “Changing Our Footprint” exhibition at Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin. The event features the small but scalable steps that the office is taking to move towards a more desirable future through the projects they are designing and the research they are conducting. The exhibition aims to be an engaging event, inviting visitors to participate in the dialogue, to think critically about the proposed solutions and initiatives, and to ask difficult questions in the search for better outcomes. The exhibition is open until March 22, 2023. Henning Larsen will also host a series of panel debates at the Aedes Architecture Forum from February 22 to March 14.
The ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards is one of the architecture world’s most influential and democratic award series, celebrating the best architecture around the world as chosen by YOU, our readers.
By nominating and voting, you form part of an interdependent, impartial, distributed network of jurors and peers that has consistently helped us highlight architecture of every scale, purpose, and condition, from countries large and small, and architects of all descriptions.
This is why we decided to trust our community in the design of The Building of the Year trophy, in a way to celebrate this community-based award.
We are looking for the best 3D-Printed trophy designs, that will be displayed at the most influential architecture practices in the world.
2022 could be remembered as the year when surprising AI-fueled tools became accessible to a larger audience: from text-to-image generation Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E 2 to unsettling design experiments such as This House Does Not Exist, to surprisingly smart OpenGPT, a language-processing designed artificial intelligence to generate human-like text.
Cautiously described by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as "a preview of progress", any user can talk with OpenGPT about almost anything: the results are astonishing and it easily can embody an umpteenth so-called threat for creative-related jobs. However, OpenGPT does not have access to browse the internet. Instead, it interacts based on the gigantic database that it has been trained on. As expressed by Gannett's Eric Ulken, "even the best generative AI tools are only as good as their training", so what an "inappropriate request" is has previously been tuned (by humans) as well.
Pioneer in large-scale 3D printing, ICON announced the construction of a 3D-printed 100-Home Community co-designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and developed by Lennar. Located north of Austin, in the city of Georgetown, "The Genesis Collection at Wolf Ranch" will become the first and largest house estate in the world built by a fleet of robots integrating additive construction techniques.
Combining the digital possibilities of 3d printing with sustainable features at an affordable price, the project aims to support the housing crisis in Austin, one of the U.S.A's most dynamic and growing cities, home to the new Tesla Gigafactory and other giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle.
The construction industry's future will undoubtedly include "carbon reduction" as a mandatory task. Aside from locally sourced, virgin materials, an increasing number of new materials are becoming available. New materials can be developed in several ways, including low-carbon substitution, recycling, performance enhancement, and 3D printing. New materials will not only be more environmentally friendly and enable new construction methods, but they will also influence the starting point and direction of design concepts, resulting in new buildings with new perceptions and spaces.
NASA and AI Space Factory developed LINA (Lunar Infrastructure Asset), an in-situ 3D-printed outpost to protect astronauts and critical missions on the Moon. The project is part of the Relevant Environment Additive Construction Technology (REACT), a multi-year collaboration to develop technologies for lunar surface constructions within the timeframe of the Artemis Mission: humankind’s return to the Moon. LINA is a step in the effort to expand civilization to Earth’s natural satellite and explore it in a sustainable way that minimizes human disturbance.
The relationship between architecture and nature is complex. If, on the one hand, we enjoy framing nature as art in our homes; on the other hand, we try at all costs to avoid the presence of obstructive "real" nature in our walls and structures, which can be damaged by roots and leaves. At the same time, we use green roofs, vertical gardens and flower boxes to bring cities closer to nature and improve people's wellbeing; but we also construct buildings with materials that are completely dissociated from fauna and flora. Although the advancement of biomaterials and new technologies is gradually changing this, we should nevertheless ask ourselves whether the structures and buildings we occupy need to be separated from the nature that surrounds them. This was the question that led researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) to develop geometrically complex 3D-printed soil structures on which plants could grow freely.
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.
Since the 1980’s, 3D-printing has offered new ways of developing architecture, engineering, and objects of daily use. When it comes to digitizing analogue processes, it is vital for users to become familiar with current tech innovations and their benefits. HIVE Project reshapes the art and craft of building in clay by combining traditional ceramics, smart geometry, and robotic precision to construct a masonry wall composed of one hundred seventy-five unique 3D-printed clay bricks.
As humanity becomes aware of its impact on the environment, it has also sought ways to reverse some of the harm caused to fauna and flora, especially in cities. Our way of living, consumption and construction has caused severe damage to nature. In fact, according to a study from the Weizmann Institute of Science, we are at a point of inflection where the mass of all man-made materials is equal to the planet's biomass, and it should double by 2040. But not necessarily everything we build should have a negative impact. "The Tidal Stool" project is an example of this - part of a comprehensive revitalization project in Kuk Po Village in Shau Tau Kok in Hong Kong, which brings together two different ecologies, the anthropocentric and natural environment.
In recent years, the construction industry has faced unprecedented challenges. A lack of skilled workers is driving up costs of labor, there is a global housing shortage, and the effects of climate change around the world are clearer than ever. Therefore, questioning traditional construction methods and pushing the limits of innovation has become a top priority, forcing the industry to implement new technologies as they get on board the digital transformation era. There is one innovation, however, that looks particularly promising: 3D construction printing. Although relatively recent, the technology has already been successfully tested in numerous structures, houses and apartment buildings, reshaping residential construction as we know it. Hence, 3D printing could very well be a viable alternative for more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective mass housing solutions in the near future, positively impacting people’s lives and contributing to greener, healthier cities.
