3D Printing with Grasshopper
What is Grasshopper?
Grasshopper is a Rhino Plug-in, famous 3D modeling software used in Design and Architecture. It is a powerful tool for algorithmic modeling and It is used to generate complex shapes through parameters.
Coding experience is not required and It can be visualized through a nodes diagram that describes mathematical and geometrical relationships in a model. You can also 3d print with Grasshopper, in the next chapter we see how to create a model and his gcode.
The main advantages of Grasshopper modeling are:
- shapes generated from data
- parametric patterns
- variable series
In Grasshopper you can generate shapes starting from data: the benefit of this process is the possibility to change almost endlessly the geometry, simply changing parameters values.
In fact, parameters are associated to different sizes of the model and varying them you can obtain real-time changing of the geometry. This function is especially useful when you work with complex shapes, because it permits to make changes without canceling and restarting your design.
Why Grasshopper for 3d printing?
Because a LDM (liquid slicing software) dedicated slicing software doesn't exist and Grasshoper offers a lot of advantages to custom the 3d print of a model:
- custom infill
- using open objects
- work with intersections
- creation of patterns
- choose the route of the extruder
3D Printing directly by Grasshopper
It is possible to print the model directly by Grasshopper, bypassing other Slicing Software. To get the gcode, It is necessary a process where the model is deconstructed in polylines and then in point with X Y Z coordinates: they will be the commands of the printer extruder. This process permits to customize the print and create for example not-planar slicing, where layers have different heights.
Difference from other slicing softwares
Unlike common slicing software that slice the stl model in equal horizontal layers, with Grasshopper we have the possibility to better control extruder movements. Generate the gcode inside grasshopper gives the opportunity to change a lot of parameters that are usually not available.
We have the complete control of the object that we want to create, from the modeling part to the final print. We can print following the isocurves of the model, operation not possible with common softwares like Cura or Simplify: here the slicing doesn’t depend on the shape or the geometry of the model.
Grasshopper offers a lot of possibilities, you only need to learn!
Learn how to 3d print with Grasshopper: the first guide
To better learn how to 3d print directly with grasshopper, there is the first guide entirely dedicated to the topic: Advanced 3D Printing with Grasshopper, Clay and FDM. authors of the book are diego garcìa cuevas, CEO of Controlmad, Architect expert in digital manufacturing and gianluca pugliese, founder of lowpoly and manager of wasp iberia.
Advanced 3d printing with grasshopper
All the models inside the book are printed with Delta WASP Clay 2040 for clay's objects and Delta WASP 2040 Pro for plastic's objects.
You can use all WASP printers models (like Delta WASP 4070 or Delta WASP 3MT INDUSTRIAL 4.0), achieving the same optimal results. It is really recommended to use the book with these printers to get the most similar results to the objects in the book.
Inside the book there are step by step instructions to learn how to generate optimized gcode for the model created on Grasshopper. Inside it there are specific and detailed infos that you can’t find on YouTube tutorials, like the vase mode print.
In this LinkedIn post, Philip Stankard, Lead Industrial Designer in 3M Design at Minneapolis, shares the unicity of the bok written by Diego ad Gianluca. This underlines the value of the book's content, a collection of experiences that you can't find anywhere else.
Learning from experts thanks to WASP Academy
If you are interested in 3d printing with Grasshopper, you can attend our courses at WASP Academy. Our experts will follow you with specific lessons in the learning and experimental process. Inside Grasshopper Workshop you will learn how to design for 3D printing, how to use parametric design features to create unique surfaces. You will learn how to transform your project in gcode and you will be shown examples to better comprehend the process.
Grasshopper Workshop is addressed to people that know the software and are skilled with clay 3d printing. If you want to learn how to 3D print before the Grasshopper Workshop, these are propaedeutic courses:
The courses, due to Covid Emergency, take place entirely online and they are available in english and italian. Check the site to keep informed about the all the courses and the dates!
An unprecedented art collection of 3D printed vases by WASP and Andrea Salvatori
Ikebana Rock’n’Roll is the first art collection of 3D printed vases born by the dialogue between Delta WASP 40100 Clay and the artist Andrea Salvatori. It will go on stage at THE POOL NYC in Milan from 3rd April to 31st May 2019.
The one between Andrea Salvatori and 3D printing is an unprecedented, exuberant and at the same time composed confrontation, made of fleeting imperfections and reasoned pauses, which originates from an innate conflict between human creation and technical artifice, between man and machine.
The machine, in this case, is the 3D printer Delta WASP 40100 Clay, designed by WASP to be at the side of the ceramists throughout the artistic process, radically rethinking the idea of the work thanks to the innovative opportunities offered by digital fabrication.
The 3D printing is the symbol of a new artistic current, the result of unique digital repertoires and still not employed by contemporary art. The collaboration between WASP and the Master aims to outline new artistic scenarios, in which mechanical routines and sculptural gestures coexist in the compositional dialogue of the work, generating unique3D printed vases .
Salvatori conceives this relationship with an extremely fascinating intuition: to tamper with the perfection of printing with a miscellany of ceramic insertions. The process of depositing the material and setting the spheres is a central theme in the Ikebana Rock’n’Roll collection, to the point of convincing Salvatori to name the works “Composition 40100”, as if they originated from a musical dialogue of the most varied tones. The artist upsets the algorithm reiterated slavishly by the machine with imperfect musical accents, the result from time to time of spontaneous actions and reasoned processes.
The ikebanes, proposed by Andrea Salvatori in the exhibition, transcend the experimental limits of an abstract investigation, representing a concrete territory in which 3D printing and ceramic art co-exist synergistically. The Master challenges the confrontation with the public, becoming also in this sector, precursor of a new genre in which WASP feels itself fully represented.
Workshop on Digital Ceramics
WORKSHOP ON DIGITAL CERAMICS
On August 29th, 2018, from 3 to 6 pm at the MIC (International Museum of Ceramics) in Faenza (RA) WASP together with the famous digital artist Jonathan Keep organizes a workshop on ceramic 3D printing.
You will have the possibility to print the new technology developed by WASP: Delta WASP 2040 and Delta WASP 60100
PROGRAMMA
August 29th, 2018, from 3 to 6 pm at the MIC (International Museum of Ceeramics) in Faenza (RA)
- 15.00-15.15 Welcome and opening of the works (Claudia Casali Director of the MIC and WASPTeam)
- 15.15-16.00 “Computation Clay”, new ways to work clay in art and design (Jonathan Keep)
- 4.00pm – 4.30pm Excursion to the ceramic 3D printing market: since 2014 up to date it’s the second generation of Delta WASP Clay printers (WASP Team)
- 4.30 pm – 6.00 pm Active part: 3D printing applications in the arts and furniture sectors (Jonathan Keep & WASP Team)
- 18.00-18.15 Conclusions and greetings
DOCENTE
Jonathan Keep
The exclusive possibility: one day with the Digital Artist Jonathan Keep
“I was born and grew up in South Africa, obtaining a BA (Hons) Fine Arts degree from the University of Natal in 1979. In 1986 I moved to England and settled in Suffolk where I continue to live and have a studio at my home in Knodishall. In 2002 I received a MA from the Royal College of Art, where my postgraduate show was awarded of the Lattice overall prize-winner award and subsequently was awarded a Woo Foundation Graduate Arts Bursary. I have exhibited and undertaken and a number of artist residencies in the UK and abroad… see more>> “
PARTECIPAZIONE
Free admission. The workshop is free, you must register your attendance by filling in the form at the following link (maximum number of participants 20 people).
Registrations closed, the maximum number of subscribers reached. Subscribe to our newsletter to be informed about the next workshops!
TIPS
The Workshop is part of the official Argillà Italia 2018 program
ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER CLAY
3D Printing to the Design service
Livyng Ecodesign melts creativity and technology with WASP printers.
Thanks to WASP, it's possible to re-interpret tradition and the hand-crafted know-how with technological and advanced systems. Livyng Ecodesign is a new company from FAENZA, born in 2015, that produces lighting, bookcases, furniture parts and objects with a highly recognisable style. Love for Nature and the passion for the design have guided and motivated the idea of this young and dynamic brand.
The new CERAMIC COLLECTION, first introduced at Argillà Italia 2016, is a perfect mix of tradition and contemporary elements , the result of a design research applied to the 3Dprinting world with the use of ceramic materials, like porcelain and gres. A challange that our Delta WASP 2040 with its clay kit deserves.
This experimentation starting point is the idea to create shapes impossible to be manually realised and with “traditional” shaping methods like the draining and the lathe moulding. Complex shapes full of undersquares which look pleasant and involving at the same time.
This is the essential requirement for the lighting series «139» and «153» and of the little flat plant vases of the «46» series. The names given to the products correspond to the number of layers needed to realise the object. The layers overlapping is in fact the distinctive element of this producing process and which characterises its look.
In particular in the lampshades, the open-weave resulting from the layer-overlapping and the consequent drying of the porcelain, creates a magic effect thanks to the light which passes throught the translucent material and the random little holes of the resulting object.
Livyng Ecodesign shares with WASP the care for the environmental awareness. They get inspired by Nature , and adapt their projects with a flexible choise of the materials; setting their interest not only to the customer needs but also to the surrounding habitat. In this way the resulting product has a high esthetic , social and eco-friendly value.
info@livyng-ecodesign.com
WASP opens up to new ways for Contemporary Ceramic Art
The Digital Revolution at the service of Art and Sculpture. New Approaches to understand the Pottery Production.
WASP returns to Argillà to show the future of Ceramics: turning Ancient craft techniques into 3D Technology. Argillà it’s the International Ceramics Festival in Faenza – Italy - where every two years Potteries, Artists and Ceramic Experts from wherever in the world come to meet each other.
During Argillà 2016, WASP will present Delta WASP 3MT a new 3-metre-high printer, able to produce 1-metre-high sculptures due to a new extruder and a clay mixture specially formulated for 3D printing with low risk of collapse.
The digital revolution in Ceramics
Massimo Moretti, WASP’s CEO, says: “The pottery’s wheel arrival has been a substantial innovation for the History of Ceramic and opened up to new possibilities of expressiveness and performance. Today the 3D Printing is the new Revolution.”
A Technology able to transform the crafting rules. To diversify the shapes, turning nimbly from a geometrical structure to the freedom of sculptural approach. A wide range of possibilities that with software open source could be achieved easily managing critical aspects of the manual labor. Due to 3D Technology the objects thickness will never be a problem again, controlling the infill the artist will be totally involved in the post-production phase.
The new extruder
A big Printer with a New Extrusion System LDM WASP Extruder able to sustain 15kg of clay. It’s the clay extruder the big news of the event.
Massimo Moretti, says: "After the launch of the first professional clay extruder for consumer printers that we showed during the last Argillà Edition, we’ve produced a new model able to extrude in a few time full scale objects. So we have designed a printer able to move till 15kg of material.” WASP has produced a printer designed to hold the weight of 20kg when it’s full. The 3MT works with an Automatic Recharge System and a 7-millimeters-diameter nozzle for big clay objects never printed before. It’s also been developed a new clay mixture specially formulated for 3D printing with low risk of collapse.
Art and 3D printing
Massimo Moretti says: “We are interested in Ceramic experimentation to open a window in Sculpture and Contemporary Ceramic. We are very proud of our results. Obviously, it’s the first step of the research process and we will improve the research during the next months."
WASP proves once again to be interested in Arts after many years of collaboration with International Artists. In this occasion will be at the stand the Artist Francesco Pacelli. It will be possible to see some Art Works and a work in progress printed with a Delta WASP 4070. A printer that has achieved a resounding success in Cultural Heritage, such as the recent experience at the Pompeii Archeological Site.
Ceramic art and 3D printing >>
Olfattiva’s perfumes
https://youtu.be/dj6hC4z8lTk
WASP believes in the promotion of the DIY, in eco-friendly projects and environmentally-aware Companies, so will host into the stand Olfattiva that works with Botanical Perfumery and Aromatherapy.
The two teams have recently worked to create a Limited Ediction of 3D printed porcelain bottles that will contain handmade perfumes with essential oil, produced by Olfattiva.
Olfattiva revalues ancient techniques of distillation and perfume composition, WASP uses tradictional materials such as porcelain to create an innovative and custom made product.
The peach pit
In collaboration with the Massa Lombarda Municipality, it’s started an important project for the development of the local culture. During the event, it will be printed with a Delta WASP 2040 a small model of the ceramic sculpture made for a new traffic circle in Massa Lombarda. L'Enma – “the soul” – a huge peach pit 3D printed in porcelain to represent a symble of the local heritage.
WASP will be in piazza del Popolo - Faenza, from 2nd to 4th September 2016.
London, World's first 3d printing restaurant - plates and glasses 3d printed in clay by WASP
FoodInk - London
FoodInk opened in London the world’s first restaurant completely produced through 3d printers. Tables, chairs, utensils and, above all, food: an immersive additive manufacturing experience. We couldn’t miss this appointment between technology and food, so we left for London with a Delta WASP 2040 and one Clay Kit with us.
Marcio Barradas from FoodInk got in touch with us first, interested in our experience in porcelain 3d-printing. With enthusiasm, we took up the challenge and, in a short time from the opening, we produced an assorted collection of glasses and plates, cooked and glazed, for this technological cuisine’s dishes.
WASP prints clay!
With our Clay Kit you can plan an unlimited assortment of objects, ready to be printed in porcelain, as you can see in the video below. Our clay extruder works by pressure, the mixture is extruded under control, then it follows the classic ceramic procedure: drying, cooking, glazing.
The event in London
Three dinners in three consecutive evenings, strictly behind closed doors, to an exclusive group of guests that didn’t want to miss this pioneering tasting experience developed by two brilliant chef, Mateu Blanch and Joel Castanye from the Spanish restaurant La Boscana.
Printing demonstrations, augmented reality and much more for an event that will take place again soon, because the restaurant will also offer 3d traveling dinners. In October, the only Italian date in Rome.
Many personalities met up during the evenings, from Arthur Mamou-Mani, partner of Zaha Hadid, project manager for tables and chairs.
A project that achieved a wide visibility and attracted big media interest. Here we are on Repubblica.it with Cristiano Pesca and Federica Ditta from WASP, that printed for us porcelain plates and glasses with a Delta WASP 2040 printer.
WASP and 3d-printing in food industry
It’s not the first time WASP is in charge of food: remember our chocolate trials, on pasta, and with aromatic vinegar from Modena.
VINEGRAAL put into production with Delta 20 40 by WASP
Thanks to the achievement of the goal in the Kickstarter campaign, the production of 500 Celebratory Kit of Aceto Balsamico di Modena started.
Balsamic Vinegar of Modena 3D Printed Collection Bottles to celebrate 50 years of the Coterie
Vinegraal is a porcelain Bottle 3D printed with the Delta WASP 2040. It has been designed to celebrate a very important anniversary: 50 years of the Spilamberto’s Coterie, the Association that defends the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.
The evolution of the project >>
WASP launches the new professional clay extruder
WASP LAUNCHES THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL EXTRUDER FOR CERAMIC MATERIALS ADAPTABLE TO OTHERS 3D PRINTER
LDM (liquid deposit modeling) Wasp Extruder is the name of the new extruder for ceramic materials that can be adapted to most of the 3D printers on the market.
WASP’s work has always been focused on the development of systems that allow the use of functional materials like ceramics, porcelain, clay, alumine, zirconium and advanced ceramics, in order to promote digital handicraft and self-production. By launching this new product the group aims to promote the print of fluid-dense materials and advanced ceramics in the world.
In two years of time and after experimenting all the possible combinations of pressure, nozzles and materials WASP has created a model of extruder which is able to interrupt and restart the extrusion flow.
The new LDM Wasp Extruder can reach a level of precision which is very close to that of plastic polymers extruders thanks to the combination of a screw extruder and a pressure extruder. With this technology it is possible to control with accuracy the flow of material and also to use retraction to interrupt deposition.
Innovation:
-Bubble eliminating extruder, it eliminates air bubbles in the mixture
-Extrusion controlling system with retraction option
-Outward pressure multiplier until 40 bar in the screw extruder
The new WASP Clay Kit includes a 3 kg tank, which can be substituted with a 15 kg one, on demand. The preceding needle experimental models did not allow middle size printing because of the limited amount of mixture they could contain. The tank can be refilled or cleaned simply by opening the caps located at the extremes. Inside, there is a piston with two 4 bar gaskets which pushes the material through the teflon pipe (diameter 12mm) which supplies the extruder. The cap located on the back has a safety valve set at 8 bar.
On the stand of the tank there is a pressure regulator and a return preventing valve. Inside the chamber, the material is funneled toward a screw which pushes it out producing a pressure of 40 bar without damaging the system. It would be impossible to reach such a pressure level with a common pressure extruder. This technology allows the air to outflow upward , eliminating the probability of finding bubbles inside the mixture. Like for a common pressure extruder, if there were bubbles the flow would be interrupted and the print would be damaged. Furthermore, thanks to the screw, the density of the printing materials is higher. This allows to reduce the time for their change of state, from liquid to solid, thus eliminating the risk of collapse of the printed object. In case the screw or the chamber were damaged they can be easily substituted.
Adaptability to other machines
The set was created to be installed on WASP printers, but can be adapted to most of the existing machines. It is very easy to install LDM Wasp Extruder on other machines. Firstly, it is necessary to print the supporting cover (the source files are provided by WASP). Secondly, the extruder must be linked to the wire and the “number of steps per millimeter” must be set to 400.
This configurations are provided by the most common slicing softwares, like Slic3r or Cura.
Clay 3D printing: ceramic pieces realized by Delta WASP 2040
Evolution in clay 3D printing
We started printing clay vases a few moths ago, with a pressure extruder. Clay is a good material because it can be mixed again after the first printing, can be reused, can be finished after the printing and, as we said, it gives a commercial value and a concrete use to the printed pieces.
The pressure extruder didn’t consent to stop the flow, so we created another one: it works with a cochlea, and has the same retraction, interruption and the same control in laying down small ammount of material, of the PLA printing.
We’re preparing ourselves to go to Paris, that’s why we thought to print the emperor bust with new clay extruder, which arrives till 0,35 mm.First results were hilarious for us, but during the week we understood that they were just the starting point for a quick evolution. You can see in pictures underlying the difference between the first print and the last one. Between those there are just a few days of distance and a lot of work.
Napoleon used to say “Every day you loose is a chance of misfortune for the future”. He was famous for being quick, he was always in motion, even when it seemed to be vain. Playing in advance was one of his main quality and we feel we have it. The pressure extruder that we brought to Argillà was a real news but we didn’t stop and we’re going to Paris with the new one.
In the picture you can see the first print of the imperor’s head, in which the mixture was too fluid and remained attached to the needle. Despite of this, the laurel crown was closed and we were happy about the results. The second picture is the last print. After improving the extruder and the mixture we reached incredibly precise results. Between the first and the last one there has been a week.
It is clear that everybody, with a scanner that costs a few hundred euros and WASP system is able to realize clay busts (or anything else) in a few hours. The process we finished is a real chance of occupation, a concrete opportunity of work.
Enthusiasm stays haigh, just like curiosity and sense of challenge.
Stay tuned!
Zzzz
Here you have some pictures and videos:
Ceramic art and 3D printing - sperimentations
Ceramic art and 3D printing merge in our sperimentations. Here we have a photo gallery by WASP which illustrates this charming relation with some substantial images.
Alternative materials for 3D printing characterize our research, which is evolving towards bigger sizes and always producing unxpected results in the path. In this path, energies meet and link from all over the world. Here we have the synergy of ceramic masters that join 3D innovation.
Between the ones in the photo there are several pieces designed by the English artist Jonathan Keep, who modulated ambient sound and printed them with a DeltaWASP. A lucky meeting the one with Ivo Sassi, a ceramic master who is known all over the world. He was so moved from our work that he wanted to fire the pieces and finish them.
3D printing offers new chances and unreleased solutions to big artists creativity.
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from thingiverse / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi 
.stl and .gcode from Jonathan Keep / 3d printing by Wasproject / material: white clay / painted and fired by Ivo Sassi / wet object heigth 68 cm 
.stl from thingiverse / 3d print Wasproject/ material: polcelain / painted and fired by Jacopo Vitali 
From project to object – Digital handicraft with 3D printers
3D printing is strictly bounded to Fourth Industrial Revolution becouse it consents to everybody who has the knowledge (or the chance to reach it) the instruments to transform a project into an object. After the advent of industrialization the chance of production was concentrated in a few people’s hands. Thanks to 3D printing everybody can produce what he needs, this kind of approach is the new handicraft or digital handicraft.
Sadly, 3D printing isn’t a solution yet but just a trend. That’s becouse of the use of plastic materials which aren’t functional in everyday life. Materials aren’t fitting the evolution of shapes that a 3D printers can do, a beautiful PLA vase has esthethic contents that are limited becouse of the functional lack, an object like this doesn’t fit for sale.
Wasp means to make a step towards handicraft and self-made, self-production. So we choose to print with functional materials that come from tradition and can be used in our lives, just like ceramic, clay, metal clay. This isn’t only a step towards handicraft but to the world we would like.
Our leading idea is hanicraft and self-production, we try to create processes to support the progress and people’s health. For this reason we don’t produce only printers but also the chance to make real things, to make a change.
In the picture a ceramic work printed by Jonathan Keep and a PLA vase printed by DeltaWasp
The biggest clay pieces ever 3D printed in the world
Wasp Project was born in 2012 with the purpose of printing houses and it determinates our daily choiches, expecially about materials. That’s the reason we work with ceramics, clays and fluid-dense materials. There is no research in this field, particularly in open sources. We faced with special attention extrusion and change of state problems and developed the first commercial extruders for clays and fluid-dense materials. That’s the reason of our delight when Argillà, national ceramic art show, invited us.
Organizers offered us the chance of working beside Jonathan Keep, an English artist who programs 3D printers starting from the sounds of nature and the numeric code which is hidden in each natural element. His innovative and sensitive approach to an ancient art like pottery endeared us.
Before our meeting we had a phonecall with Keep in which we decided to realize the biggest pieces we were able to. Live sperimentation is the typical Wasp approach, but we didn’t know what we would have done.
The several advices and contributes of the senior potters who were there were very usefull to achieve our goal. One of those advices was about Chamot, a kind of clay that contains a fired chopped clay inside. The extrusion of Chamot has allowed us to print some pieces which were 2mm thick and 70 cm tall. The biggest 3D printed clay pieces in the world.
.stl by Jonathan Keep, Faenza's square noises which was full of people have been transformated in an object shape
Jonathan Keep enthusiasm was amazing for us, he never had the chance of working with a so high precision and so vast sizes, and expeccially he never printed clay so fast. By using Deltas (2040, 4060 and BigDelta) Keep understood that a real mass-producuction is possible in this way.
We were impressed by Keep attention and ability, he was very concentrated and creative and despite lenguage difficulties Massimo and Jonathan worked together in those days with a common view and wholeartedly.
At the fair we had the cance to meet real pottery professionals who had been working for decades and who know thousands of clays. We also faced the opinion of people about the presence of a 3D printer in an handicraft fair: some of them red it like the end of handicraft but almost all the pottery masters looked at our printers like an opening to new creative prospectives and new expressive ways.
One of the most interesting meetings was the one with Ivo Sassi, who started his artistic work in Faenza with huge teachers in the early 50’s. The craftsman was amazed of Delta’s technology becouse of its capability of solving th typical clay problems, just like the risks of collapse, braking or burst during the burning.
“It’s a very armonic process, from the artistic point of view”, despite he is an eighty-years-old man Sassi immediatly undestood the potential of 3D printers.
From Delta technology , Keep poetic and artistic figure and Romagna’s pottery tradition the pieces that you can see in the pictures.
Here you have also the link to Artribune’s article about our experience at Argillà.
Aït Ben Haddou / clay and 3d printing
Ait Ben Haddou was the place were we went to reach the clay for our Big Delta, we were equipped of shovels, picks and sacks. The idea to go there came from a flyer which illustrated Ait Ben Haddou as an ancestral architecture example.
Alì, our driver, told us that in the desert houses are made by clay and that in Berber tradition for each wedding the couple choose the colour of the clay for their house between red and green.
So we lost ourselves between the high clay walls of Ait Ben Haddou, were the red of the buildings meets the blue of the sky.
Alì explained to us that the clay houses need no restoration except an addiction of 2 cm of soil every five years. So Ait Ben Haiddou offered us the chance to deal with the problem of water erosion, becouse of the continental, rainy weather of the center of Morocco.
In the mean time we had beautiful snowy mountains at our back.
We are already thinking how to resolve erosion problems with the use of an additive, starting from tradition we try to emprove it by modern technology.
So we started our clay collection. We discovered multiple layers of soil with different colours: the exterior one was unfitting our project becouse there was too much send inside of it. The underlying layer was perfect: it had the right proportion af sand and clay to create a functioning and consinstent mixture for our Big Delta. Not by chance it was the kind of soil used by Ait Ben Haddou abitants to build their houses.
Then we came back in Marrakesh, to African Fabers temporary Fab Lab, where we worked with Urban FabLab guys to make the mixture of clay and water using our hands and feet. We loved working in this way becouse it reflects our idea of starting from tradition to improve it, we want to take the best from every kind of technology, the new and the old ones, and connect one to the other.
In the video you can see Big Delta (Green Award winner in 3D London Printing Show) while prints some shapes obtained with Grass Hopper, using Ait Ben Haddou clay.