MEAN Designs 3D Printed Concrete Roundabout Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai

I stumbled across this article on Linkedin and think it is worth it to share.

The founder of MEAN (Middle Eastern Architecture Network) is Riyad Joucka and he came to my school at KADK in Copenhagen to teach us and tell us about his work. I always remember when he came because he was not much older than us and what an inspiration for young architects studying innovation in architecture.

MEAN* or Middle East Architectural Network has proposed an intervention for Expo 2020 Dubai. The Boulevard Roundabout Pavilion, an 8-meter structure, will be an unmissable iconic proposal that welcomes the public to the world event.

Inspired by the story of the Expo 2020 Logo and the palms of the UAE, the architectural firm conceived an “interactive installation that symbolizes the ethos of Sustainability and Innovation”. Assembled on-site, the project puts in place a walk-through spatial forest of 3D printed concrete elements, cast with UHPC or Ultra-High-Performance Concrete, resembling palm trees and fitted with branching LED lights. Experienced by foot, or viewed from cars, the roundabout offers a new approach to an urban element. The spaces between the 3D printed palms lead the visitor towards an open space.

"Our Expo 2020 Landmark proposal amalgamates technology, innovation, and sustainability into an iconic structure that serves as a welcoming icon to the event. […] The Expo 2020 Landmark structure is designed to serve as a reminder that the World’s Fair site is built for generations to come, an urban connection between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and a model of the innovative cities of the future. -- MEAN*"

MEAN*, the Innovative Architecture Practice that works at the nexus of design and emergent technologies, founded by Riyad Joucka, utilizes computer programming, robotics, 3D printing, AR, VR, and CNC manufacturing to leverage their architectural work. The project that aims to consolidate Dubai’s status as the 3D capital of the world, generated a robotically 3D Printed Concrete construction, “saving on material waste by reducing the amount of form-work involved in the process of casting, as well as providing a cleaner construction site, all while allowing for a higher degree of complexity in design”.

Using Expo 2020 as a platform to showcase the possibilities of this emerging construction technology to the world, the project is “a self-reliant energy generator that absorbs abundant Sun energy to power itself”. Its elements produce energy during daytime whereas at night they become animated with various lighting modes, glowing with various patterns.

I am very much looking forward to seeing how the Dubai Expo 2020 will be if this will be built and even more exciting is that a friend of mine was working with Aecom on the masterplan of the Expo 2020 and what she said sounded super cool, very innovative, 3D printed landscape and interactive environment.

But as we all know with architecture... let's see what and how it will be realised.

Until next...

The_Icelandic_Architect

Love starting the year 2020 with this amazing news in innovation in Architecture

Happy new year to all.

This year 2019 has been eventful for me @The_Icelandic_Architect moved from Copenhagen where I was working at BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) to Iceland where I have been designing houses to finally start working in close up to my projects here. I am very much looking forward to 2020 a year of build-up in Iceland and make your dreams come true.

I want to start this year with amazing news from the 3D print industry. This is something that many architects (including myself) think of through their career, "how can I with my skills help where there is more need".

Since I started learning about digital fabrication and 3D printing I have thought about this, that one day we can with all the technology that we have help in the countries that need it the most. Build cheaper and more sustainable houses to increase the quality of life for those that really need it.

THE FIRST HOMES HAVE BEEN BUILT IN NEW STORY’S 3D PRINTED COMMUNITY FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES IN MEXICO.

New Story, a non-profit organization fighting homelessness, has announced that construction of the ‘world’s first’ 3D printed community is officially underway. As part of a collaborative project with ICON, a Texas-based construction technologies company, the first set of homes have already been 3D printed in Tabasco, Mexico. They feature final construction build-out by ÉCHALE, New Story’s nonprofit partner in Mexico.

“Conventional construction methods have many baked-in drawbacks and problems that we’ve taken for granted for so long that we forgot how to imagine any alternative,” explains Jason Ballard, Co-founder, ICON.   

“WITH 3D PRINTING, YOU NOT ONLY HAVE A CONTINUOUS THERMAL ENVELOPE, HIGH THERMAL MASS, AND NEAR ZERO-WASTE, BUT YOU ALSO HAVE SPEED, A MUCH BROADER DESIGN PALETTE, NEXT-LEVEL RESILIENCY, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A QUANTUM LEAP IN AFFORDABILITY.”

This project is to provide low-cost housing for low-income communities in Latin America. The new homes that have been successfully 3D printed will be granted to local families in Mexico currently living in extreme poverty and makeshift, unsafe shelter.

3D printing homes for low-income families

Co-designed with feedback from the families, the 3D printed homes feature two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bath. They are situated within a seismic zone, and have been engineered above the standard safety requirements including robust foundations to ensure the homes will last for generations.   

The families that will be allocated to the 50 homes in the 3D printed community have been preselected, and they will begin moving in once all the homes are complete. The selection process for the families that get to live in the 3D printed homes is based on a survey of over 500 families, conducted in partnership with local government officials. In the community in Tabasco, the median family income per month is $76.50, some of the lowest-income families in Mexico as a whole. When surveyed, 74 percent of families stated they do not feel safe in their current living conditions and that this greatly affects their quality of life.

Versus

“I think it’s important to remember what makes this project different, what makes it matter: we’re not an R&D company just for the sake of innovation, and we’re not here to turn a profit. These homes are for real people, with real needs, and everything we do is for them, and includes them in the process,” concludes Lafci, co-founder and COO of NewStory.

Link to the original article HERE

I am very happy to see that there are people out there with this skill and finance to support it and think the same way. I would love to be a part of a project like this in the future to come. Love to start the year with some goodness in the world.

The Icelandic Architect

Urban farming in Paris

Europe’s most densely populated city is growing. But not in population it’s growing fruit and vegetables.

At the edge of the French capital, an urban farm is being built that will supply residents with a tonne of food a day. How amazing is that! The Paris Expo Porte de Versailles is set to become home to the world’s largest urban rooftop farm next year.

The 14,000 m² of space – equivalent to about two football pitches – will be loaded with around 30 different types of plant. They’ll be grown in columns without soil and fed with nutrient-rich solutions and rainwater. This aeroponic method uses little water and means a large number of plants can be grown in a small area.

This is not new technology but urban farming has been a trend for a while great to see that this trend is being executed and becoming more than a just a great idea. Agripolis, the company behind the farm, already runs other rooftop farms around France. Founder Pascal Hardy wants more urban spaces to take up the mantle: “Our vision is a city in which flat roofs and abandoned surfaces are covered with these new growing systems. Each will contribute directly to feeding urban residents who today represent the bulk of the world’s population,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

Since being elected in 2014, the city's Mayor Anne Hidalgo has been on a mission to make Paris a greener city. The French government’s Parisculteurs initiative aims to cover 100 hectares of the city’s rooftops, walls and urban spaces with plants by 2020. One-third of this space will be dedicated to urban agriculture.

Looking forward to see Paris becoming literally a greener city.

more here