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Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects
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Zaha Hadid Architects
Michele Pasca di Magliano
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Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects
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Zaha Hadid Architects
CMA-CGM Towers Marseilles
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Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects
Industry vanguard Zaha Hadid Architects in London adopted 3D printing ten years ago for its highly intricate architectural models, but can the industry pioneer envisage using additive manufacturing to produce large-scale structures?
Associate at Zaha Hadid Michele Pasca di Magliano has worked on iconic structures such as the CMA-CGM Tower in Marseilles, while he is currently one of the Project Directors on the City of Dreams Hotel Tower in Macau. He feels strongly that new technologies should be explored and architects should not shy away from exploding centuries-old conventions.
He explained that while some elements of construction are constantly being updated, much of the industry has not changed since Roman times.
"If we could just go to a site with a raw powder and a machine you would save an incredible amount of money before you've even looked at your carbon footprint," Pasca di Magliano stated. "You wouldn't need all the packaging and all the expensive temporary work you need with concrete. With 3D printing you don't need formwork, you can just build. It reduces dead materials because you are using materials only for construction."
He noted that the artistic possibilities afforded by 3D printing would mean not being constrained by routinely building large, flat surfaces for speedy, repetitive construction, as the technology would break down some of those limitations enabling creativity.
"That's the wish at the moment," Pasca di Magliano remarked. "We want more of a vision for the construction side of 3D printing. We want more control over the final product and that's why we want to use 3D printing. But it's not there yet for several reasons; from testing to legislation, quality to costs."
Complementary technology
Zaha Hadid Architects views 3D printing as a complementary technology in architecture, utilised much in the same way the jewellery industry uses 3D printing alongside traditional bench craft. There is the potential, said Pasca di Magliano, to additive manufacture small structures leaving room for wiring and services, but for multi-storey and other large structures, the final product will incorporate numerous techniques, but 3D printing would come into its own when building complex shapes.
The architect explained: "We look at 3D printing in terms of producing specific elements that are very hard to build with traditional techniques.
"We are producing some large structural steel components for a project in Macau at the moment and there are very large, complex geometries coming together on this façade. We have to resolve to build those with a limited number of choices; welding metal plates, or you could cast metal but that's a very long process and it's full of unknowns. So if you could print those elements, it simplifies a lot of issues."
Zaha Hadid primarily uses 3D printing to produce models, with in-house 3D Systems SLA and SLS machines building complex concepts.
"We know 3D printing is very good at making small elements, very intricate and complex forms," Pasca di Magliano said, "[but in the] construction industry it hasn't evolved much. There's a number of benefits we've seen that 3D printing could offer and it really could open up a lot of possibilities. It's going to change what you can build."
Plot for life
One of these possibilities is the theory that 3D printing could transform the housing market, giving homeowners a 'plot for life'.
"You tend to buy a house and then sell it to buy a bigger one," the architect explained, "but what if you buy a plot of land and then build a house and keep on building it? And the idea of mass customisation is really interesting. You would no longer have the constraints of the chain industry we have now where every element has to be the same, when in fact every element can be printed once and in theory it could be completely different."
Pasca di Magliano does not want to see 3D printed houses that look like 'traditional' houses. That, he said, "would be dull". Instead, the technology should be used to showcase exactly what it can do and how it can push the envelope.
"The process of finding somebody who wants to invest in this and to create a large machine and go through the process of testing it is not going to be quick. And it's going to be expensive. But we would definitely push for it."
And what would a 3D printing construction site look like? Pasca di Magliano believes that instead of people working with bricks and mortar, there would be people operating robots and machines. And at completion, only the hardware would be removed from site, rather than cranes, formwork and waste.
3D printed buildings are not a pipedream, with the Canal House 3D printing project in Amsterdam due to reach completion in 2015, but Pasca di Magliano believes it will be some time before the technology trickles into the mainstream.
"The projects we do are at the forefront of the technology and the benefits of the discoveries should be applied to the wider industry, but I think we have to be realistic. If there's a large investment, it will be in the wealthiest part of the world first. At the moment, unfortunately the volume cost for 3D printing material is too high. If budget wasn't an issue 3D printing buildings is something we would already be doing."
