The vision of Massimo Moretti, founder of WASP, the second largest manufacturer of FFF 3D printers in Italy, is beginning to take shape. The shape is that of a 6 metre tall Delta 3D printer, capable of building simple housing units in clay. At Maker Faire Rome this coming weekend, visitors will be able to observe a slightly smaller sized version — at 4 meters, however it is still a giant compared with what has been achieved so far in this field.
Although for many – and perhaps even for Moretti himself – his is a utopian vision. WASP’s results are right before our eyes. In 2013, they triumphed at the 3D Printshow in London with the Green Award but, even more importantly, the continues business to grow. Moretti and his team produce and sell desktop 3D printers, Cartesian and Delta, to finance the dream to create one 3D printer that could solve the housing problems of the world but the reality is that, utopia or not, the company works and grows, driven by the enthusiasm of those who belong and then participate in the virtuous revolution of 3D printing.
Yet there is more, given that even the design of the 3D printer for homes begins to run on its own legs. “We have a big goal, and we work every day, step by step, to reach it – Moretti said in a statement. This road allows us to find new outlets. We have created the first marketable extruder for clay, ceramic and porcelain, to give the possibility to produce objects that have a function and a market value. Printing in clay provide many people new ways to self-production of pieces that are real, practical to use and commercially viable. The work and progress are the cornerstones of our thinking.”
The dream of creating a 3D printer capable of building houses is shared by many around the world and takes on different faces. There is Dini’s dream, to create complex concrete structures with his D-Shape (more similar to ZCorporation’s Inkjet Powder Printing process in its approach); and DUS Architect’s project to create a plastic house in Amsterdam with they giant KamerMaker 3D printer. There are those of makers Hans Fouche in South Africa and Andrey Rudenko, with his “garden castle”, in the USA. Then there are Chinese companies aiming to use giant 3D printers for mass housing. Yet Moretti’s project seems to be the most practical, marketable and sustainable, at least to me. Perhaps it is a utopia but what will be on display at the upcoming Maker Faire is very real.
Wonderful coverage that makes people look forward to the Rome event even more !
As a demonstration for the printing of this material, this is OK. But
this hardware is unlikely to scale up to something practical at a scale
that can produce actual housing printed whole as suggested. Nor is it
likely that such high-tech is going to be practical in the economic
context of the developing world this is intended for.
It’s another example of well intentioned western inventors/designers not
understanding how the economics of housing actually differs between the
industrialized and developing worlds. Labor isn’t the primary cost of
housing there like it is in the west. It’s materials costs. And the
ultimate problem isn’t actually the cost of housing but the recent
un-sustainability of traditional modes of life in cultures that have had
dysfunctional western market economies imposed on them from outside.
And while this is sensibly using an appropriate low-cost local material,
the automation isn’t improving anything in this context because it’s
technology that can’t be made and maintained by those who need it–and
so you’re only creating another dependency on western imports and
expertise.
This only makes sense in the context of some kind of international
disaster relief effort where the great white saviors from the rich
countries briefly come flying in to fast-mass-produce relief housing.
But that too implies somehow maintaining the specialized production
capability for this over periods when it’s not needed. Do houses made of
this material have a market in the west that can sustain the existence
of these systems for when they’re needed for disaster relief? It’s the
same problem as with high-tech relief prefabs; how do you continuously
maintain specialized production capability for something that is only
needed intermittently? Production capability can only exist for as long
as it’s being used. And so the smartest approach to relief housing is
the repurposing of production and products that already exist because
they already have a continuously sustainable market–and, ideally, can
potentially have that same industry established in the locations where
that kind of housing is needed.
WASP is on a worthwhile effort. Period.
If they are able to find satisfactory answers concerning the issues of what they are embarking on, WASP might as well not start?
The whole host of mitigating factors considered and how any unpredictable factors that could affect this effort may go in either a positive or negative direction, we’ll know with the passage of time.