Design To Fabrication: When 3D Becomes Our Daily Reality

First 3D Printed Building

Dini claims the d-shape process is four times faster than conventional building, costs a third to a half as much as using Portland cement, creates little waste and is better for the environment. But its chief selling point may simply be that it makes creating Gaudiesque, curvy structures simple

3d printers where introduced about a decade ago, and since then they have significantly evolved, their cost has been reduced, and they have become a widely used technology. Nowadays you can find a commercial 3d printer the size of a fridge in many architecture firms and schools, used to produce in-house rapid prototype models of their designs. Some projects, such as Fab@home, MakerBot and RepRap, have even been pushing to make this technology affordable and available on a personal basis, so that anyone can 3d print from their desktop at home.

One of the main shortcomings of 3d printers when they initially appeared was the actual material in which the parts were printed. The resilience of the material, its appearance, and the resolution in which they print, have evolved since. And, whereas there were not many material alternatives before, today there are 3d printers that can work with clay, cement, sand and even titanium. There is also the technology to print with multiple materials and colors.

logy to 3d print in stone. The result: being able to print buildings on a one-to-one scale.



D-shape

Enrico Dini's massive 6m x 6m 3d printer rests on four extendable pillars and works by depositing a structural inorganic binder on a sand layer in sections of 5-10mm. The process turns inorganic, cheap and ecological materials into a compact stone similar to marble. On a non-stop work session the machine starts from the foundation and constructs everything all the way to the top of the roof, including stairs, interior walls, columns, and even the cabling and piping cavities.