Cheaper buildings, courtesy of mud

The EarthWorks method, as it’s known, introduces some additives, such as straw, and a waxlike coating to the soil material. Then it’s 3D-printed into a custom-designed shape. “We found a way to make formwork that is infinitely recyclable,” Curth says. “It’s just dirt.” A particular advantage of the technique is that the material’s flexibility makes it easier to create unique shapes optimized so that the resulting buildings use no more concrete than structurally necessary. This can significantly reduce the carbon emissions associated with concrete construction. “What’s cool here is we’re able to make shape-optimized building elements for the same amount of time and energy it would take to make rectilinear building elements,” says Curth, who recently coauthored a paper on the work with MIT professors Lawrence Sass, SM ’94, PhD ’00; Caitlin Mueller ’07, SM ’14, PhD ’14; and others. He has also founded a firm, Forma Systems, through which he hopes to take EarthWorks into the construction ... Read full article.