ABSTRACT
The continued use, exploitation and transformation of non-renewable materials is causing irreparable changes to our planet. The search for new 'green' sustainable emerging solutions aims to minimize the negative impact caused by the exploitation of non-renewable, non-reusable and non-recyclable resources, replacing them with new manufacturing processes for construction elements. O The present work develops an investigation that aims at the crossing between two areas of knowledge: (a) digital technologies as auxiliary tools for project development and (b) cellulose as a raw material. The combination of materials of natural origin, such as the use of cellulose, starch and clay, will allow the definition of a set of mixtures that will be previously studied and catalogued. Each mixture will be pre-tested, according to a set of tests. Afterwards we will prove the viability of its use in additive manufacturing (AM). With the use of natural materials and their integration in architecture we propose a regular modular prototype, the ‘Kusudama Wall’. Kusudama is a self-supporting modular wall structure, produced using materials of natural origin – cellulose, corn starch and clay – composed of a set of independent components, which can take different configurations. The components have various geometries, small and large openings, controlled according to a set of digitally defined parametric relationships. In this way, it is possible to promote a link between the 'green' raw material and three-dimensional robotic printing, using AM. Kusudama offers the possibility to produce and compose eco-design approaches in contemporary architecture.
