A 30-meter tower will be printed in Switzerland in 900 hours
The world’s tallest building printed on a 3D printer will appear in a Swiss village. The white Baroque tower, created by researchers from ETH Zurich, will consist of 102 columns and will be 30 meters high. There are five floors planned, and a performance space will be located at the top. The printing process will take 900 hours or a little over a month. Another feature of the design is that it will be collapsible.
The White Tower is being created in collaboration with the cultural institution Nova Fundaziun Origen. It is printed in parts and then transported and assembled at a construction site in the village of Mühlen in the Swiss Alps.
The 30-meter-high tower will be made in the Baroque style. The columns printed on the 3D printer will support five floors and form a semi-open facade. A removable lightweight membrane will also be installed to protect the interior from the weather if necessary.
Each floor will be lighter and more spacious than the previous one. A spiral staircase will lead to the top. The culmination will be a hall on the top floor with a stage and seats for 45 visitors. This space will host small concerts and theater performances.
The printing process itself should take 900 hours. The technology is similar to other 3D printed architectural projects: robotic 3D printers squeeze a soft cement-like mixture out of a nozzle in layers to create the basic structure of the various parts of the tower for assembly.
The entire structure of the tower was designed using special software that allows us to accurately determine the geometry and make the entire structure collapsible. During the construction process, 102 separate printed poles will be created. Elements will be filled with concrete only where necessary by design, which significantly reduces material consumption. This construction method avoids the use of formwork for pouring concrete and minimizes waste.
