Project Start : 2021 Project End : 2024 Location : Binissalem, Mallorca, Spain. Team : Munarq Architects Gross Floor Area: 300 m²
Ca na Pua is a sustainable earthen home built in Binissalem, Mallorca; an island off the shore of Spain’s Mediterranean Sea. Ca na Pua was designed by munarq, an architectural studio based in Mallorca founded by Rafel Munar and Pau Munar focused on the integration of architecture in the Mediterranean landscape. inclusion of the environment
To construct this house munarq used an old local Mallorcan technique known as ballast. During this process, aggregates of various sizes, stone, and lime are mixed together to create a strong base. Then an open diffusion membrane between two ballast to allow for waterproofing. Waterproofing supports the overall longevity of the building while maintaining a healthy indoor environment.
The interior of the house uses a coat of earth and lime that creates hygrothermal environment environment. The earth-lime mixture acts as a natural buffer, absorbing and releasing moisture to maintain a comfortable and stable indoor climate.
The roof is insulated using straw coverage laced between laminated wood beams. This setup creates a dense and well-integrated insulation layer that provides thermal resistance.
There is an interaction with the built environment with the build patio or oasis shared within the home.
TOVA is the first architectural construction in Spain located in the facilities of IAAC Valldaura Labs, Barcelona, built with a Crane WASP, the architectural 3D printer. The project was completed in 2022. The construction can be completed within weeks using 100% local materials and local labor, zero waste and a close to virtually zero carbon emission footprint. This manufacturing system can be used anywhere in the world and can help to housing emergencies. The project has been developed by the team of students and researchers from the 3D Printing Architecture (3dPA) postgraduate program of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC).
Also, this project is one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly construction forms that can be applied today. The construction took 7 weeks time to complete, a Crane WASP, the architectural 3D printer and km zero materials. The structure is made ofclay and water obtained on site. To ensure the longevity of the material in resistance to weather, a waterproof coating is added using raw extracted materials such as aloe and egg whites.
Thebuild area is 9 m2. The prototype took into account performative design strategies, conceived during a two-week design charette where students synthesized the lessons learned in the research phase to develop the components of the prototype: light openings, air flow, wall cavity ventilation, thermal conductivity, roof structure, built-in furniture, waterproofing and floor substructure.
The proposed design has different structural considerations in the roof beam system as well as the innate structure of the clay walls. The walls are designed to be braced with T and L joints, rather than straight lines. The resulting closed interior space is habitable, weather resistant and climatically adapted by the various design interventions.
Completed wall and platform on IAAC campus outside of Barcelona [1]Architects:Alexandre Dubor and Edouard Cabay (see below for full team)
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Year of Completion: 2018
Area: 10 square meters
Digital Adobe is a research project developed by faculty directors Alexandre Dubor and Edouard Cabay at the IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) in 2017-2018 (The rest of the contributors can be found here). The goal was to apply additive manufacturing techniques to the creation of an adobe wall with “highly performative structural and passive/climatic behavior” that could be adapted to the material limitations and climatic conditions of many locations [1].The project culminated with the design and construction of a wall composed of 3D printed Adobe bricks, assembled by hand. The printed mixture is composed of 43% clay (unusually high for traditional adobe) , 25% aggregate, 13% water, and 1% bio based additives. The mixture was developed and strength tested before being used in smaller scale 3D printed prototypes and eventually the 1:1 wall. Assembly took 5 days [3]. The whole process can be seen in this video produced by the IAAC.
The structural capacity of the wall and its potential for integration with other building materials is demonstrated by the connection of a timber frame platform that bears on the wall. The research team also designed the wall to be self supporting. This is achieved through the tapering profile from 0.7m at the base to 0.2m at the top. This geometry combined with the wall’s own weight provide stability [1].
Wood beam to adobe wall connection [2]The other determinant of geometry was passive climactic behavior. The research team aimed to harness the natural properties of adobe, while enhancing them via geometric variation. Hollow bricks allow for cavity ventilation in the final assembly (while also saving material) and protrusions create a self shading effect that limits solar gain. The internal structure and fill of the bricks also vary with differing amounts of earth fill and sizes of cavities. These differences produce a portion of the wall more attuned to passive heat gain and another optimized for ventilation and therefore passive cooling [2].
The varied cross section of 3D printed adobe bricks with differing amounts of earth infill. The portion of the wall on the left side of the image is optimized for passive heat gain, and cooling on the right side. [2]The wall is significant for its demonstration of enhanced structural capacity with minimal material, and potential adaptability to various locales through enhanced passive heating and cooling made possible by the varied brick profiles. While the production process is likely cost prohibitive for widespread application at time of its construction, the project is an important investigation into how an adobe structure’s performance might be enhanced through the formal possibilities made possible with additive manufacturing.
A rendering produced by the IAAC team speculating on future use of the system for full buildings [1]1.Digital Adobe. IAAC. (2019a, April 30). https://iaac.net/project/digital-adobe/
2. Digital Adobe – additive manufacturing with adobe towards passive habitats. IAAC Blog. (2018, August 11) https://www.iaacblog.com/programs/digital-adobe-additive-manufacturing-adobe-towards-passive-habitats/
3. IAAC, Digital Adobe, IAAC Open Thesis Fabrication (2018; Barcelona) Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTug99TUYcw&list=PLrJLvlOA1ReATJ-qyTKT5tFWdBVbYCuM-&index=10
Open Thesis Fabrication is a six-month applied research program for postgraduates at the Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia.
The program focus is on combining additive manufacturing with construction technology to create sustainable architecture with key areas of research in robotic manufacturing, material research, and performance-based design.
The program works with non-governmental organizations to develop designs for use in African humanitarian contexts and is comprised of architects, engineers, designers, and professionals with previous knowledge of digital fabrication and computational design.
It’s learning objectives are for program participants to:
Gain experience in large-scale 3D printing
Develop skills in digital fabrication, computational design, and material research
Learn to provide architectural solutions considering various aspects of construction
This is achieved through the implementation of three phases, Exploration, Prototype Design Charettes, and Prototype Construction.
Image Source: OTF Booklet
Examples of projects that have been completed include:
Digital Adobe – A 2-meter wide and 5-meter-high printed clay wall [2017-2018]
Terraperforma – A façade design of parametrically constructed modules optimized for solar radiation, wind behavior, and structural 3D printing [2016-2017]
Digital Urban Orchard – A wooden pavilion made with digital and robotic fabrication divided into a wooden structure, aquaponic system, and silicon skin designed to capture the ideal solar radiation for winter and summer.
Minibuilders – a family of small-scale construction robots that are capable of constructing objects larger than itself in order to address the limitation found in additive manufacturing that often constrains the proportions of fabricated objects to the size of the machine.
El X Congreso Internacional de Arquitectura de Tierra tendrá lugar los días 27, 28 y 29 de septiembre, en Cuenca de Campos, provincia de Valladolid. El día 27 el congreso comenzará en Valladolid, en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura. El 28 y el 29 nos desplazaremos desde Valladolid a Cuenca de Campos. Se disfrutará de una visita al laboratorio y un taller de tierra a cargo de José María Sastre. El grupo TIERRA os anima a participar en el congreso, como asistentes y sobretodo presentando ponencias, con el objeto de poner en común nuestros conocimientos.
The Stone Spray Project is a revolutionary robotic construction method which uses soil as the base material and a liquid binder to solidify the soil granules. And uses a jet spray system to deposit the mix of soil and binder, for constructing architectural shapes.
Stone Spray is a project by architects Petr Novikov, Inder Shergill and Anna Kulik. The project is done in the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and supervised by Marta Male-Alemany, Jordi Portell and Miquel Lloveras. With professional advisors: Santigo Martin from Vortica and Guillem Camprodon from Fab Lab Bcn.
RESTAPIA 2012 is an international congress on rammed earth, its conservation and, in general terms, on earthen constructive techniques and its conservation. It will take place on June 21st,22nd, 23rd 2012 at Valencia. This meeting aims to incentive sharing the restoration experiences of both monumental and non monumental architectural heritage made in the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the world in order to learn from all these interventions and derive conclusions and perspectives for the future. Thus, it aims to represent an important milestone at international level in the reflection about the conservation and restoration of rammed earth architecture and earthen architecture in general.
The program of RESTAPIA 2012 includes keynote lectures given by international experts on the topic and the presentation of papers and posters during June 21st and 22nd 2012, and an added day of technical visits on June 23rd 2012.
The ermita of Viguera in La Rioja, Spain, captured here with a pin-hole camera by photographer Sebastian Schutyser, was constructed in the 13th century and contains important mural paintings within. An overhanging rock cliff protects the ancient adobe structure from the elements, which is only accessible by steep 15 minute climb from the nearest road. Schutyser writes of the ermita:
The Spanish word ermita [English: hermitage], has a similar structure and meaning in all languages derived from Latin. It always refers to an uninhabited or isolated place, a location for spiritual retreat. In Romance languages it comes from the Latin word eremus, tracing back to the Greek eremos, which means deserted. In Spain, their use has shifted throughout the centuries, but they have always been isolated sanctuaries or chapels. Hermits inhabited them in seclusion, or in other times, in small groups. Other hermitages were built by pilgrims, who tried to invoke divine protection on their journeys. Finally, some hermitages were erected for pastoral cults, or to house religious brotherhoods. At present many still have the cult of a saint celebrated in them once a year.
Vier Arquitectos, comprised of Antonio Raya, Christopher Crespo, Santiago Sánchez and Enrique Antelo, are the designers a municipal swimming pool in Toro (Zamora), Spain. A unique quality of the facility is that its exterior walls have been constructed of rammed earth, a traditional technique updated on a contemporary building typology.
Photo: Héctor Santos-Díez
The building, comprising three volumes, two for dressing and one more for the pool’s, supporting thermal collectors used to heat the pool water and showers, and extra water from the cleaning process, which is stored in a reservoir and reused in irrigating the landscape.
Image Source: Munarq 
