3D Printed Hyper-sustainable Shelter called the Mud Frontiers Project by Emerging Objects

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Last updated on 04 Nov, 2020

3D Printed Hyper-sustainable Shelter called the Mud Frontiers Project by Emerging Objects

An Adobe Mixture of Dirt and Straw

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This is the one of the most cost effective and affordable solutions for autonomous construction. Mud and straw has been used as a construction material for thousands of years but never like this. Could this be an early iteration of affordable housing that has 0 emissions? Creators Ronald Real and Virginia San Fratello said ‘On the 40th anniversary of the Smithsonian Magazine, they announced the 40 things you need to know about the next 40 years. 

Number one on that list was: “Sophisticated buildings will be made of mud”. Emerging Objects explores these frontiers of technology and material using traditional materials (clay, water, and wheat straw), to push the boundaries of sustainable and ecological construction in a two phase project that explores traditional clay craft at the scale of architecture and pottery. 

The end goal of this endeavor is to demonstrate that low-cost and low-labor construction that is accessible, economical and safe is possible. The project began in the contemporary borderlands along the Rio Grande watershed beginning in El Paso and Juarez and ended near the headwaters of the Rio Grande in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, which was the edge of the historic border between the U.S. and Mexico prior to 1848. 

The entire region has employed traditional pottery and earthen construction traditions for centuries.’