Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

D-Shape Printer Makes Full-Scale Sand Structures

by Ben Deitz on March 20, 2010 at 05:30 PM


As children building sandcastles on the beach, we often dreamt of what it would be like to inhabit our creations. Perhaps designer Enrico Dini was thinking the same thing when he created his D-Shape printer, which can build full-scale buildings using sand.

The gigantic printer alternates sprays of sand and binding glue, the latter of which turns the sand to rock. Slowly, the rock is built up into the designated shape. The finished product resembles sandstone, and is apparently as strong as reinforced concrete, giving the printer's creation both a unique aesthetic sensibility and durability. Traditional construction methods can be too complex and constraining to realize truly outlandish designs, but the D-Shape allows the creation of more organic structures, such as those designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. In fact, Dini wants to use the printer to finish Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, which has been under construction since 1882.

Dini began work on this project in 2004. Originally, his printer design called for an epoxy resin to bind the sand, but the epoxy proved too problematic, clogging up the hundreds of nozzles in use. In 2007, Dini switched to an inorganic binding glue, making the large-scale printing both feasible and cost effective. The process is also more environmentally friendly than concrete, allowing for greener structures that don't look man-made.

Dini has set his sights on more than just revolutionizing terrestrial building methods, however. He wants to modify the D-Shape to work with moon dust, and is in talks with Italian university La Scuola Normale Superiore architect Norman Foster, and aerospace company Alta Space to build structures on the surface of the moon.

We can't wait to see the practical applications of the D-Shape, and are eagerly looking forward to working in office buildings shaped like conch shells, and living in Gaudi-inspired moon bases. [From: Blueprint, via: Inhabit and Fast Company]

Tags: 3-d, 3d printer, 3dPrinter, architecture, construction, design, enrico dini, EnricoDini, gaudi, MoonBase, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular