As blogged on Dwell.com, near Bologna, Italy, Mario Cucinella Architects and 3D-printing company WASP are building a new kind of habitat. It’s called TECLA, and it’s a 100% 3D-printed house made of clay harvested at the build site. The zero-waste process utilizes reusable and recyclable materials to produce affordable dwellings—and Cucinella believes that it’s the future of housing.
“Together with WASP, we aim at developing a habitat that responds to the increasingly urgent climate revolution and the needs of changes dictated by community needs,” says Cucinella.
Since 2012, Italy-based WASP has been developing 3D-printing technology to produce “zero-mile” homes—homes that don’t require material sourced from afar. Now, they’ve started building habitats akin to beehives with on-site clay.
“WASP takes inspiration from the potter wasp. We build 3D-printed houses using earth found on the spot, under a sustainable perspective. The oldest material and a state-of-the-art technology merge to give new hope to the world,” says WASP CEO Massimo Moretti.