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New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
The world's tallest 3D-printed tower has been unveiled — in a town with a population of 12
A tower aims to raise the population — not just the roof. In Mulegns, Switzerland — where the local headcount hovers around a dozen — a towering new arrival is making noise in the best possible way. Tor Alva, or the White Tower, now rises nearly 100 feet above the rooftops, a gleaming 3D-printed beacon of architectural ambition in a village teetering on the edge of extinction. Advertisement 14 In the tiny Swiss village of Mulegns, population roughly a dozen, a futuristic marvel now rises among centuries-old cottages. Hansmeyer/Dillenburger 14 Tor Alva, or the White Tower is the world's tallest 3D-printed building at nearly 100 feet high. AP 14 The intricate forms echo both the delicacy of filigree jewelry and the tiered presentation of confections — a nod to the region's 19th-century emigrant pastry chefs who once brought prosperity back to this alpine valley. CheWei Lin Advertisement Unveiled in May, the column-wrapped tower is officially the tallest 3D-printed building in the world. It won't house any residents, but it will lure visitors to the town, something that's sorely needed locally. But its true purpose reaches beyond records: reviving a town whose population has plummeted from 140 in 1900 to barely enough to field a soccer team today. The tower was created by the Origen Cultural Foundation in collaboration with ETH Zurich, and assembled on the site of a former blacksmith's shop. 14 In New York City, 100 feet in height typically is around 10 stories. AP Advertisement 14 Created by the Origen Cultural Foundation and ETH Zurich using 32 intricately ornamented columns printed with a custom concrete mix, the tower showcases the cutting edge of digital fabrication. Salvatore di Pino 14 A shot of the columns. R. Masallam 14 Its elements were then transported and assembled atop a former blacksmith's shop in the center of the village. E. Skevaki Its 32 sculptural columns were robotically printed on ETH's campus near Zurich using a custom concrete blend designed by Professor Robert Flatt to set fast while retaining delicate architectural detail. Advertisement The structure, meant to evoke both filigree jewelry and the layered elegance of a confectioner's cake, was designed with cultural symbolism in mind — an homage to the pastry chefs who once emigrated from the region and brought prosperity home with them. 'It inspires the building sector, encourages sustainable tourism and offers new cultural space,' Giovanni Netzer, founder of the Origen Cultural Foundation, said in the ETH Zurich press release. He called the project 'a technical triumph.' 14 Giovanni Netzer, founder of the Origen Cultural Foundation and the project's artistic director, called the tower 'a technical triumph.' Hansmeyer/Dillenburger 14 Inside is a 32-seat cupola theatre with sweeping mountain views, set to host performances beginning in July. Hansmeyer/Dillenburger 14 Unveiled on May 20 and open daily for tours, the project symbolizes a bold intersection of architecture, science and sustainability. Nijat Mahamaliyev 14 Once home to about 140 residents in 1900, Mulegns has seen its population steadily decline — to 50 by 1980 and just over a dozen today. Benjamin Hofer Inside the tower is a 32-seat cupola theater with sweeping views of the surrounding alpine landscape. Daily guided tours are now open to visitors, and theatrical performances will begin in July. Advertisement The tower's arrival marks a dramatic intervention in the fate of Mulegns, where the population fell to 50 by 1980. According to the project's website, Tor Alva aims to 'breathe new life into a historic community while setting a global standard for sustainable, culturally vibrant development.' ETH Zurich experts say the project represents a 'symbiosis' of architecture, culture and science. 14 Though the cost of the project hasn't been publicly disclosed, similar large-scale 3D printing efforts have exceeded 1 million Swiss Francs (roughly $1.1 million), according to construction platform Concrete Connect. Birdviewpicture Advertisement 14 After five years, the tower will be relocated to boost another declining community — but hopes are high it will have already helped breathe new life into Mulegns. Hansmeyer/Dillenburger 14 The tower alight at night. CheWei Lin 'The use of 3D printing enables a bold, non-standard approach to architecture,' they said, 'offering an extraordinary range of shapes and forms.' While the cost of the tower hasn't been disclosed, similar large-scale printed structures have exceeded about $1.1 million, according to Concrete Connect. Advertisement Mulegns won't host the tower forever — Tor Alva is set to be dismantled and relocated to another village in 2030. But local leaders hope that by then, the attention, tourism, and investment it brings will have helped Mulegns regain not just visitors, but residents.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
World's tallest 3D-printed building is unveiled in Switzerland: Futuristic tower stands at almost 100ft tall - so, would you be brave enough to scale it?
Among the charming centuries-old cottages, an elaborate white tower in Switzerland stands out like a sore thumb. Constructed by robots, it's the world's tallest 3D-printed building, measuring almost 100 feet (30 metres) in height. To put that into perspective, that's more than six times the size of a double-decker bus! Known as Tor Alva (the 'White Tower'), the gleaming white construction in the small village of Mulegns offers a new tourist attraction and cultural hub. Tor Alva is intended to emulate a layered cake – a tribute to the history of confectioners in the region – and also takes inspiration from filigree, an intricate metalwork technique used in making jewellery. Giovanni Netzer, founder of the Origen Cultural Foundation, which designed and built the tower with ETH Zurich, called it 'a technical triumph'. 'It inspires the building sector, encourages sustainable tourism and offers new cultural space,' Mr Netzer said. It's now open to the public - so, would you be brave enough to scale it? The White Tower, officially unveiled on May 20, is now open daily for guided tours and will host staged performances from July. At the very top is a cupola theatre, a performance space described as a breathtaking venue with spectacular views of the surrounding mountain landscape. According to ETH Zurich, the 32-capacity tower is designed to serve as a cultural hub and a way to breathe fresh life into a village threatened by depopulation. Mulegns is home to only around a dozen people – down from about 140 in 1900, 50 in 1980 and 30 in 2000. Unfortunately, the rapidly plummeting numbers mean it is at risk of being depopulated entirely, turning it into an abandoned ghost town. 'Tor Alva breathes new life into a historic community while setting a global standard for sustainable, culturally vibrant development,' the project's website says. According to experts, the tower representing a 'symbiosis' of 'architecture, culture, and science' is made up of 32 unique 3D-printed columns. Each column is 'articulated with a bold array of forms and intricate ornamentation at multiple scales, giving the structure an enigmatic, otherworldly presence'. Designed as an immersive performance space, the White Tower features a cupola theater enveloped by a forest of filigree branching columns – a 'breathtaking' venue above the village rooftops (bird's eye view) A special mix of concrete was used, dispersed layer-by-layer by massive robotic arms programmed with blueprints and instructions. Developed by Professor Robert Flatt at ETH Zurich's Institute for Building Materials, the mix had to be soft enough to bond in the elaborate shapes, while hardening quickly enough to support the subsequent layers. It took five months to print the columns on the ETH Hönggerberg campus in the outskirts of Zurich, about 80 miles away. Components were then assembled in Savognin and delivered to Mulegns via the Julier road in a heavy goods vehicle before being assembled on top of a building formerly used as a blacksmith's shop. 'With its striking architecture and groundbreaking use of technology, the White Tower exemplifies the transformative potential of computational design and digital fabrication in architecture and construction,' the experts add. 'The use of 3D printing enables a bold, non-standard approach to architecture, offering an extraordinary range of shapes and forms.' It's unclear how much has been spent on the project, although similar large-scale printing projects exceed 1 million Francs (£880,000), Concrete Connect reports. MailOnline has contacted ETH Zurich for more information. Mulegns is not the permanent home of the Tor Alva, however; in 2030, after five years, the tower will be dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere to give another settlement a boost By that time, it's hoped Mulegns' population will have recovered thanks to media exposure from Tor Alva and the associated tourism. The alpine village flourished in the 19th century as returning emigrant confectioners built grand villas and hotel pioneers fostered a thriving tourism industry. 3D printing is increasingly becoming a building method of choice to reduce human labour and speed up the construction process. One US firm called Mighty Buildings is offering customisable 3D printed abodes starting from $100,000 (£75,000) that fit in a back garden. 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY MAKES OBJECTS BY DEPOSITING MATERIALS ONE LAYER AT A TIME First invented in the 1980s by Chuck Hull, an engineer and physicist, 3D printing technology – also called additive manufacturing – is the process of making an object by depositing material, one layer at a time. Similarly to how an inkjet printer adds individual dots of ink to form an image, a 3D printer adds material where it is needed, based on a digital file. Many conventional manufacturing processes involved cutting away excess materials to make a part, and this can lead to wastage of up to 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) for every one pound of useful material, according to the Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. By contrast, with some 3D printing processes about 98 per cent of the raw material is used in the finished part, and the method can be used to make small components using plastics and metal powders, with some experimenting with chocolate and other food, as well as biomaterials similar to human cells. 3D printers have been used to manufacture everything from prosthetic limbs to robots, and the process follows these basic steps: · Creating a 3D blueprint using computer-aided design (CAD) software · Preparing the printer, including refilling the raw materials such as plastics, metal powders and binding solutions. · Initiating the printing process via the machine, which builds the object. · 3D printing processes can vary, but material extrusion is the most common, and it works like a glue gun: the printing material is heated until it liquefies and is extruded through the print nozzle · Using information from the digital file, the design is split into two-dimensional cross-sections so the printers knows where to put the material · The nozzle deposits the polymer in thin layers, often 0.1 millimetre (0.004 inches) thick. · The polymer rapidly solidifies, bonding to the layer below before the build platform lowers and the print head adds another layer (depending on the object, the entire process can take anywhere from minutes to days.) · After the printing is finished, every object requires some post-processing, ranging from unsticking the object from the build platform to removing support, to removing excess powders.
