The view that buildings should last ‘forever’ combined with accelerating technology and fashion culture is resulting in buildings less than 50 years old being demolished and put into landfill. Many of these buildings are comprised of toxic materials that released extensive amounts of carbon during their manufacturing and do not biodegrade after use.

The project, led by architect Barry Wark, explores the position that buildings and their elements should have the ability to be reappropriated or recycled into new elements, to meet the needs of an ecological architecture.

3D printing with sand has the potential for elements to be made, installed, removed and turned to aggregates again. This premise is explored at the architectural scale and conceived as a parts-based system, allowing for ease of assembly, disassembly and reuse of some elements in other configurations.

Furthermore, the project delivers on the early promises of 3d printing creating bespoke and differentiated pieces, a condition that is not always evident in much of contemporary 3d printed architecture. Working with the fabrication on a part by part basis means each piece can maximise the file to fabrication data size limits, allowing every part to become highly optimised to the structural, thermal and aesthetic objectives of the general assembly.