The First 3d Printed House ‘Gaia’ Built With Earth

Gaia, a new eco-sustainable architectural model designed and built using the 3D printer called Crane WASP.

Project: Gaia

Location:
Location: Via Castelletto 104, Massa Lombarda,
Italy

Design Team:
Ricehouse, WASP

Typology:
Private Residence

Printed building envelope: 30m²

Cost of materials for wall: 900 €

Images and Video: WASP

Following text provided by the designers*
Gaia, whose name is due to the use of raw earth as the main binder of the constituent mixture, can be considered a new eco-sustainable architectural model with particular attention to the use of natural waste materials, coming from the rice production chain and oriented to the construction of particularly efficient masonry from a bioclimatic and healthy point of view. This research was also possible thanks to the collaboration with RiceHouse.

For the realization of Gaia, RiceHouse supplied the vegetable fibres through which WASP has developed a compound composed of 25% of soil taken from the site (30% clay, 40% silt and 30% sand), 40% from straw chopped rice, 25% rice husk and 10% hydraulic lime. The mixture has been mixed through the use of a muller, able to make the mixture homogeneous and workable.

Gaia is a highly performing module both in terms of energy and indoor health, with an almost zero environmental impact. Printed in a few weeks thanks to its masonry, it does not need heating or an air conditioning system, as it maintains a mild and comfortable temperature inside both in winter and in summer.

The bioclimatic project by RiceHouse takes advantages of the passive contribution of the sun thanks to its South West orientation where a large window is positioned to optimize natural light, but in particular is centered in the stratigraphy both in the roof, made of wood with an insulation in limechaff (RH300), both in the lime-chaff screed, light but thermal that allow to reach an energy requirement equal to a class A4. The monolithic wall printed in 3D was then finished internally with a shaving clay-lamina (RH400), smoothed and oiled with linseed oils.

“Gaia was made exclusively with natural materials such as raw soil, shredded straw, husk, and wood and is highly performing from an energy and environmental point of view”. Tiziana Monterisi (RiceHouse’s CEO)

The building envelope, completely on site 3D printed through the Crane WASP, has been designed with the aim of embedding natural ventilation systems and thermo-acoustic insulation systems in only one solution. The deposition of the material based on raw earth, straw and rice husk is controlled through articulated weaves able to confer at the same time constructive solidity and geometric variation along the entire wall development. The versatility of the computational design has in fact made possible in the construction practice thanks to the precision and speed of the 3D technology, obtaining complex geometries, difficult to replicate with the traditional construction systems. It took 100 hours for the realization of the 3D printed casing, for a total of 30 square meters of wall whose thickness is 40 cm and the total cost of the materials used for the wall is € 900.

On the basis of the data experimented with Gaia, it is possible to concretely conceive new economic scenarios in which one hectare of cultivated paddy field can become 100 square meters of built area.

Gaia experience offers the opportunity to divulge the multiple potentials that 3D printing can express thanks to the world agricultural resources, guaranteeing a minimum environmental impact in addition to infinite design solutions, essential in a new living vision.

Read more about 3dWASP work on their website.

Project Details

Project: Gaia

Inauguration: 6-7 October 2018

Location: VIA CASTELLETTO 104, MASSA LOMBARDA (RA)

Design: WASP IN COLLABORATION WITH: RICEHOUSE

3D printer: Crane WASP Floor area: 20 sq.m.

Printed Building Envelope: 30 sq.m.

Total cost of materials used for the wall: 900 €

Materials: Raw earth, straw, rice husk, lime.

Construction time: 100 hours

Project Images