IAAC - 3D Printing Sustainable Architecture

Our solution combines the latest advanced technologies in material sciences, robotics, and computational design with biomaterials, performative and customizable construction processes into contemporary architecture through Additive Manufacturing (AM, or 3D printing). 

Over 8 years of research, IAAC has successfully developed a suitable material mix 3 times stronger than pure earth thank to bio-based additives, cutting down fabrication costs by using On Site Automation (including rovers, cable robotics, drones) and allowing new structural and energetic performance in 3D printed architecture through computational design and digital simulation.

These digital technologies create the ground for community empowerment allowing people to take a central role in their local building industry. Open source global knowledge and shared technology  among the international network will be adapted to meet the local needs and challenges, adapt to each context, climate, culture and inhabitants. This solution aims to tackle the housing crisis problem worldwide as a test-bed in Kenya.

Cities are growing in population at unprecedented rates, in particular in Africa and Asia, pushing the construction sector to produce more buildings. As these account for 36% of global CO2 emissions, it is imperative to reduce their environmental impact. We aim to address the housing crisis, promoting a shift from industrial mass production to sustainable mass customisation. The project therefore opens the possibility to share knowledge and practice, related to the production of citizens’ built environments, as well as optimising the performance of these to reduce their environmental impact during the construction phase, building lifecycle and obsoletion. 

With the advent of open source and low-cost 3D printing technologies, citizens  are given the possibility to become more active in the production of their habitat and transform their built environment. While these systems have the potential to power DIY and bottom-up participatory transformation, a key concern is that such technology still need further development to become accessible and easy to use by a larger group of people without previous experience in digital technology. 

This project is serving communities struggling with housing crises and willing  to learn how to build their own homes and working spaces with sustainable materials. Making 3D printed architecture accessible for the inhabitants would also allow them to globally connect with an international supportive network  

In collaboration with Un-Habitat, the project action research study case looks at the possibility to implement such technology in the Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya), floods of the Suleja river (Niger) and the highway construction in Yaounde (Cameroon). In this context, MIT Challenge funding  will allow the connection between a local group of master builders trained to use, adapt and develop those technology in their very specific context, potentially starting a new local economy based on sustainable and recyclable materials.

Our solution is a potentially affordable 3D printing technology approach, which employs local and natural materials, machines and design methods:

• Material : Bio Based additive that can be found locally, such as Enzymes, Wheat, Cork, Hemp Fibers and Ash, can unlock new potentials of material strength (up to 3 times stronger than usual earth material for building) as well as new performance associated to earth materials in terms of insulation, ventilation, waterproofing and seismic reinforcement. Spreading the knowledge acquired by  our research and combining it with the ancestral knowledge of worldwide community could lead to new discoveries and a wider use of Earth Building. 

• Machines : 3D printing on site requires specific robotic solutions. The research has explored and demonstrated the viability of various types of machinery, including cable robots and autonomous rovers, each with its set of potentials. An extensive use of sensors allows these machines to adapt to local materials and conditions, while being easy to set up and calibrate. Finally, the open source hardware and software of these machines can help local communities to adapt and fix these machines to their needs. Design : Computational designs for 3D printing architecture are being developed to be adapted to local conditions, such as performative walls that can adapt their insulation and ventilation characteristics to the specific climate; Floor Plans that can be easily changed to accommodate the needs of families and local cultures;  or structural details that can adapt to the mechanical characteristics of local materials.

• Digital Platform : Building on the experience of the Fab Lab Network, a community based platform can emerge from the collaboration between all the actors involved in the process, bringing together citizens and local communities, investors, designers, builders, and researchers. 

While earth construction have been existing for millenaries and currently host one third of the population, It slowly replaced by more polluting and less accessible concrete construction. Our innovative solution rethinks the way we design and build earth construction through the implementation of 3Dprinting at large scale, a technology that is yet to fully enter the construction sector. In particular our multidisciplinary and holistic approach to material, technology and design allows us to propose a new construction paradigm capable to build cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Because of the latest advances in technology, the construction industry holds the potential to become a catalyst to make our cities more inclusive, social and culturally diverse; through customised buildings. Eco-friendly digital fabricated buildings, using local and recyclable materials, opens the possibility to efficiently answer the housing crisis, while allowing local communities and end users to customize and design low cost solutions. 

The core technology utilised and co-created with the community are related to nano materials, AI robotics and computational design:

• Nano Material : Clay is a nanoscale material with a behaviour that can be adapted with very small quantity of additives. Advances in NanoMaterial tools and knowledge allows to change its rheology, Density, Mechanical strength or Water porosity. 

• AI Robotics : Unpredictable  material and unstructured environment are two challenges for automation, but recent advances in sensors and machine Learning allows to integrate new capacity of adaptation in the 3Dprinting machines, allowing them to self-calibrate and adapt their kinematics, material mixes and design to the very specifics of each site and material.

• Computational Design : Combining performance Simulation and Optimisation Algorithm, new structural and climatic performance can be achieved in 3Dprinted architecture, while the increasing ease of access to cloud solution allows to involve the final user in the design of their houses, customising the solution to each climate, material and culture.

The proposed solution of 3D printing Architecture with Earth expect to address the problem of productivity and performance criticized to earth building, while offering new opportunities of a city that is sustainable and designed by and for its citizens. By using low-tech systems, open source and easily adaptable to each situation, this solution also pretend to avoid proposing one technology solution for all, but instead to propose a community based network for the development of a sustainable alternative to our current means of construction.

Today, the solution have been tested at scale 1:1 but is not serving yet any end user. 

In one year we will build the first set of house or an entire village, serving hopefully a first community

In five year, we hope to see many other community being built around the world, seeded from the first successful story impulsed by us.

Within one year : to solve the technical and financial issues to lunch a first village. 

Within 5 years : to establish a worldwide network of builders and users willing to share and further develop the system, with possibly making the technology more accessible, easier to adapt and repair, and with new opportunity of material combination (not only earth)

The first barrier is Financial resources in order to implement the first Village pilot, Stimulating further development of the technology to be fully productive onsite and reduce production cost

The second barrier is Legal: Material characterisation and building code analysis need to be carried in each location. Legal barriers have been identified to be very restrictive in Europe and North America while developing country promise an easier implementation thanks to a less present legislation on small scale buildings. 

The third barrier is Cultural : Earth buildings is often considered negatively as a “poor” and “old-fashioned” construction method in developing countries, while people in developed countries consider it positively for its ecological and health impact. 

We plan to organize a crowdfunding campaign to build a first village (Possibly a refugee Camp in Kenya or a Market neighborhood in Cambodia), Therefore making a pilot project, stimulating the development of the technology and demonstrating the potential of its implementation in a real case. 

The location would be chosen outside of Europe and North America to avoid legal barriers at first.

A clear attention will be given to the architectural design,  demonstrating that earth construction can be elegant and modern. 

The solution have emerged from the research carried out at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), a nonprofit foundation with the mission of envisioning the future habitat of our society and building it in the present.

6 Part-time staff

10 students each year

1 institutional partners

2 Industrial partners

2 consultants.

Hundreds of colleagues and friends supporting this project. 

We are a multidisciplinary team of architect, engineers, urbanist, material and social scientists, and dreamers. 

We are at the forefront of digital fabrication in Architecture with long experience of full scale prototype using innovative technologies and materials. 

We have experience with Open Source community, and in particular within Fab Labs (we are Fab Lab Barcelona, one of the central node of the FabLab Network). 

We are recognised for our innovative and dynamic teaching methodology, allowing students from any background to learn technology in hands-on approach.

Un-Habitat, as institutional partners help us to better understand the socio-economic impact of this technology in specific context, in particular Africa. 

Wasp, as industrial partner help us to scale up the 3d printing technology.

Windmill, as engineer consultant help us to improve structural efficiency and reduce material use. 

LaSalle, as climatic consultant help us to improve energy efficiency and thermal comfort. 

Our impact business model applies business tools to find sustainable solutions to housing and construction neglected problems at all levels of society. We deploy innovative solutions to improve communities and the world in which we live, based on principles such as: value creation by entrepreneurship and impact business, balancing economic value and social impact, defining impact and designing impact models, and applying technological 3D schemes for social change. 

We will mainly rely on two sources of income: [1] direct from the organisations/projects we are implementing; and [2] from "venture" investments from third party (as Solve MIT Challenge, H2020, and others) organisations wishing to support us in achieving our goal, or, to a specific project.

For the beta version, we believe local constructors would be the key channels (customers and user) of the digital platform and of the 3D printing technology. Final beneficiaries of the proposed solution would be the inhabitant and citizen that would pay the constructors for their house. In parallel, the government could invest in public buildings requiring this technology, supporting this new generation of sustainable constructor.

As an assessment and prototyping phase, the previous step will be to deploy the idea with MIT Challenge grant to cover the high initial cost of research and development for Hardware and Software.. The alpha version will go open source in order to validate the solution with our global network. Once proven to work and to be reliable on the terrain, we imagine a larger adoption of the technology by constructors and believe we could reach financial sustainability by offering research, development and consultant services to specific company and government in need to develop further this technology and its applications.

Funding, mentorship and strategic advice about our project, to ensure a positive impact on our world. We aim to scale our initiative impact and results. As a starting point, we are looking at the following objectives by collaborating with Solve and its Business Advisors:

-Mentoring on how to grow the business including how to improve the framework we use.

-Networking through events, to create new partnerships and collaborations with like-minded people.

-Support with marketing in order to find more business opportunities and better explain the value of our service.

-Guidance on how to grow the business, through specific concepts and processes, in order to become profitable whilst remaining attentive to our vision of achieving global social impact and values of outstanding sustainability.

-Help with developing key indicators and other tools to measure the impact of our business activities.

-Funding for costs related to travel expenses for strategic meetings and business development prospective cities, starting in Kenya).

Looking for partners with experience in similar projects, if possible in the construction sector for Asia, Africa and South America. Looking for constructors and entrepreneur willing to test this technology and approach in a real case study.

We are keen to partnerships with companies and organisations sharing the same principles:

• Additive Manufacturing (AM, or 3D printing) experts, such as https://3dwasp.com, https://noumena.io/

• Social innovation and Social Digital Innovation initiatives: such as the European Projects  https://digitalsocial.eu/ and http://making-sense.eu/ at Fab Lab Barcelona

• Social entreprises, such as https://agsinvest.com 

• Governments

• Local NGOs

• Other institutions or bodies who want to create social impact

We would develop further the AI system currently integrated in our printing system, an AI that analyse earth material sample and adapt in real time the material mix, the printing parameters and the printing path. We would also develop further the AI currently integrated in our design system, an AI that analyse Material and Climate characteristics together with people’s choice and culture to propose architectural plans and details. In both cases the implementation of AI technology target the need to make the 3D printing building process more accessible to constructors while allowing citizen and inhabitant to be more included in the design and decision process. 

As an open-source project willing to spread across a traditionally non-digital sector such as the construction industry, one of the main challenges will be about education, documentation and communication, with the goal to make information and knowledge accessible by everyone. If granted, we would use the GM Prize to create a large part of the educational and documentation material online and open source for people to replicate the technology and use it on their own. With this material developed, the team will also teach on the terrain with different workshop and training format to be tested, reviewed and improved. The underlying goal is to foster prosperity and social mobility for all the members of the community, including illiterate people with low incomes  traditionally working in the construction sector. A specific attention will also be given to include more women in this sector traditionally composed of mainly men. 

Part of the research have been focusing on the particular case of Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Would we be granted the Prize for innovation in Refugee Inclusion, we would finally be able to implement the proposed solution in Kakuma and analyse its impact on the advance economic, financial, and political inclusion of refugees in their hosting communities

We believe our solution could sparkle change in the construction sector worldwide and transform this industry into a more inclusive and sustainable system. Would we be granted the Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prize, The team would develop the web based design and knowledge platform capable to build the community around this technology for 3D printing earth building.