TECLA

An experimental 3D-printed dwelling made of local earth

With about 83 million people being added to the world’s population every year, mostly concentrated in the poorest countries, governments are now faced with a considerable challenge in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which seeks, among other things, to provide access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services.

In this context, the implications of new constructive processes – of which 3D printing is currently the most advanced technology – are far-reaching. With the possibility to print a house in a small fraction of the time required by traditional processes, while also significantly reducing waste and emissions, a deep rethink of the concept of house becomes increasingly strategic.

With this in mind, and following the visions of both companies, MC A and WASP have therefore recently embarked in the conception and design of a new sustainable habitat that aims at proposing itself as an innovative housing concept. Such concept, named TECLA after a city imagined by Italo Calvino in “The Invisible Cities”, articulates upon the possibility of creating a new operational chain that bases its sustainable strategy on the elimination of waste along the process. To achieve this substantial goal, the printing material chosen for the first prototype, that will be actually printed starting in September 2019, is local earth.

TECLA is conceived as a basic cell, whose shape and physical characteristics can change according to local climate and context, that can be varingly aggregated in order to better fit within the different locations. The prototype about to be built in Massa Lombarda (RA) is therefore just an example of how this concept might evolve and contaminate the space around it. It is composed of two domes compenetrating each-other and hosting a living open-space area and a bedroom space equipped with a small toilet. Outside, a small lake collects waste and rain waters to be reused for the garden, while another cell, featuring solar and thermal panels, provides clean energy to the building, thus potentially making of it a fully off-grid home.