Researchers at ETH Zurich are moving forward rapidly on construction of the DFAB House, the world’s first full-scale architectural project to use 3D sand printing for its formwork. The DFAB House will be the first house in the world to be designed, planned and built using predominantly digital processes.
Now the team has completed what is known as the Smart Slab, a lightweight concrete slab spanning 80m2 at the DFAB House. Just 20 mm thick at its thinnest point, the slab combines the structural strength of concrete with the design freedom of 3D printing. For the Smart Slab project, the researchers did not produce the building components themselves with 3D printing but rather the formwork – i.e. the mold.