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

What materials age Beautifully? Here are my top 6 picks.

A very important factor of the architect practice is that the building is there to stay... well in most cases...

So how will the material age in the environment you are building in? How will it be in 5 years, 10 years... 50 years?

Unfortunately this factor is often neglected... we spend all our time understanding how the building will be used and how it should look in terms of volume... that external factors like weather get forgotten.

But this is very important for the building to grow in beauty over time.

This is one of the factors that separates good architecture from great.

Here are 6 good picks... hope this helps in making a decision for your design or your future home.

Stone or Limestone / Steinn eða Kalksteinn

Img1: The Icelandic parliament build in 1880, The other img: The Glade house by DLM Architects

One of the most beautiful materials, used for ages, is stone. It tells a story of what was and what has been. Stone buildings have survived centuries and are ever so beautiful and they magnificently present themselves as dominant structures.

This versatile material can not only be used as a solid structure, masonry construction, but also as a thin stone facade systems that equally create a magnificent building front.

_________

Kalksteinn er ekki mikið notaður á íslandi margs konar steinn er og var mikið notað.

Teak / Teak viður (Icelandic)

The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn

Teak wood silvers with age and requires little to no maintenance (as does most timber high in tannic acid). This wood is beautiful with concrete in time it will become more alike in colour but with the soft texture of the wood combined with the rough texture of the untreated concrete.

Besides buildings, teak wood is mainly used for building boats and outdoor furnitures as it is highly resistant to rot and unlike other timber it has a very low shrinkage ratio.

Pine / Fura (in Icelandic)

The Pobble House by Guy Hollaway Architects / pictures by © Charles Hosea

Pine (Fura in Icelandic) is another wood that gains a gray-blueish shreen over time. The uncoated surface ages beautifully over time when exposed to the elements, but you can also affect the amount of silvering by applying pigmented coats of oils to make the timber more UV-resistant. This graceful wood is popular in rural projects and projects in touch with nature whereas it creates a visual connection to the surrounding natural landscape. This wood is very popular in Iceland.

Corten

CorTen Steel House By Faulkner Architects in California, United States. Photos: Joe Fletcher

Corten is one of my favorite... maybe not as a whole building but for sure as a part of a building that keeps changing with time...

While other metals used in construction are designed to resist corrosion, Corten invites rust to form on its surface. The rust itself forms a film which covers the surface and forms a protective layer. You don't need to treat it and you certainly don't paint it: it's all about making rusty steel look attractive.

When it's new construction, it looks just like you would expect a sheet of steel to look, all black and shiny. Most common progress is that first it turns yellowish, which tones down to orange and after some years it has all become gorgeous dark-brown purple colour but the final colour depends on weather can vary from orange, red, brown blue or black.

Corten can last for centuries but it does not like sea salt as it eats through the congealed rust layer... Good to keep in mind.

The building is beautifully, passively changing with time.

Zinc / Sink (Icelandic)

I love Zinc as well.... Zinc is ever so hype in popularity because of increasing demand for eco friendly products. Zinc is most commonly used for roofing as well as zinc panels.

Perhaps zinc's best known benefit is its ability to keep away from corrosion because of its thin coat of patina it develops covering the material and protecting it from the elements. Another thing this patina does is that it repairs it self. Zing is an organic product that is alive and can repair its scratches and other imperfections, but Zinc is not silk straight and smooth facade cladding like aluminum or other alternatives.

Zinc is great for eco-friendly construction because it requires less energy for production than other metals such as aluminum and copper, due to its lower melting point and also Zinc is recyclable, since it can be produced from recycled materials taken from demolished or re-roofed structures.

Copper and Bronze / Kopar og Brons (Icelandic)

Copper is the famous green metal that becomes more and more beautiful with time...

It can take everything from 5 years in an industrial are up to 30 years in a clean environment for the patina to develop. The light green weathering is caused by copper carbonate and copper sulphate forming in connection to oxygen in the air, creating a protective layer.

Bonze similarly oxides to form a protective green patina but with strong brown bronze colour undertones.

Important to keep in mind when choosing a material is to take into account the local weather and the local materials. Sustainable material is only so sustainable if it is not destroying rainforests or being shipped across the world.

Also these materials are not the cheapest once but when making a housing budget - renovation cost and durability has to be taken into account and in the long run these materials will always require less maintenance and get even more beautiful with time.

The_Icelandic_Architect

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