Scoolpt displayed a concrete wall printed on a 3D printer at the trade fair

Brno - A two-meter high and two-meter wide wall was created today with the help of a 3D printer from a special concrete mixture at the Brno Exhibition Centre. Artists from the Scoolpt project, founded by sculptor Michal Trpák, printed it at the Architecture Festival. The architecture festival is accompanied by construction fairs that will last at the exhibition until Saturday.

"It's an experiment for us as well; we've never printed such a large piece of wall before. But we are happy to test the possibilities that technology and materials give us," said Kateřina Nováková, head of the experimental studio at the Faculty of Architecture of ČVUT in Prague, on behalf of Scoolpt.

The wall consists of several different structures, which are intended to ensure its stability and insulating properties. "When you look at the buildings that are being printed using 3D printing abroad, they are mostly in places like Saudi Arabia, where they don’t have to deal with heat loss. This represented an architectural challenge for us," Nováková added.

Scoolpt is a non-profit project that allows its members to test the possibilities of 3D printing in art and architecture. They have already created sculptures and parts of urban furniture with its help.

"A few enthusiasts came together, and as soon as we secured partners, they started voluntarily delivering materials for us to test. We collaborate with a supplier of concrete mixtures, whose properties we verify; we also have a robot loaned from a company that would like to find out whether it is suitable for 3D printing of concrete at all," Nováková stated.

The material that Scoolpt used for printing the wall consists of cement, water, binder, and artificial fiber. Its character, according to Nováková, determines the final properties of the material. "3D printing has a future in construction; it can definitely be used, for example, for the production of panels, i.e., prefabricated parts that can have much greater shape variability than parts made from traditional materials," Nováková added, referring to organic shapes associated with modern architecture.