Affordable housing – this is one of the major issues that are facing highly congested cities, where the cost of living is high, and while all of the modern day amenities are there, life can be difficult for the man on the street who lives from month to month. Even more so for displaced and indigenous communities, whose livelihood can be affected by just one flood – wiping out their crops for the seasons ahead, as well as washing away their homes, leaving a swathe of mud and destruction behind. Perhaps the WASP 3D printer might be able to make things right in such situations – by building cheap housing with mud.
The Italy-based company behind WASP (World’s Advanced Saving Project), a 3D printer that builds using mud, could be the future of housing in many different parts worldwide where there is plenty of earth – which is also the most affordable, local building material around. The entire idea of the WASP 3D printer is to make it easier to go through the once labor-intensive process of building using earth, thanks to an automated, digital fabrication process.
It certainly lives up to the namesake of the insect, don’t you think so? After all, there are some wasps that do build their homes out of mud. How apt! This 3D printer can print structures up to 3 metres (10 feet) tall, using a mix of mud, clay and fibre as a binder.
Filed in . Read more about 3d Printer. Source: treehugger