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WO RLD-CHANGING IDEAS >>

FREE MASONRY The Striatus Bridge by Zaha Hadid Architects debuted at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale , below ; the underside of the bridge , whose 3D-printed concrete blocks are held together by compression without reinforcement , right .

A new and inexpensive production process to transform iron into steel made possible the rise of skyscrapers in the 20th century . When computer-aided design ( CAD ) replaced the work of manual drafting , it paved the way for the precisely mapped curves of the sculptural buildings by Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry .

In the last decade , a new technology has opened up new possibilities : 3D printing . Also called additive manufacturing , 3D printing involves adding materials in precise layers to realize an object drawn from a digital file .

After years of using it in their offices to print models , architects are now deploying 3D printing to create building elements and even whole structures . This permits them to reduce material waste , cut costs and development times , experiment with new materials , and create previously unseen architectural aesthetics .

“ 3D printing can have a game-changing impact when it is used to connect different materials and construction systems , or when tooling and molding are prohibitively expensive or limiting ,” says Tristan Morgan , computational design and automation lead at engineering company Aurecon .

For example , the Striatus Bridge , built in Venice in 2021 by Zaha Hadid Architects ( ZHA ) in their signature flowing style , demonstrated a responsible way to design with the construction industry ’ s most used and also most emissions-generating material : concrete .