Sep 14, 2015 | By Kira
Earlier this month we reported on the Big Delta, a 12 meter-tall 3D printer created by Italian engineering firm WASP. Currently the largest 3D printer in the world, the Big Delta has huge potential for the 3D printed housing industry, particularly in poorer countries and during natural disasters and mass emergencies.
The company held a press conference today, attended by the mayor of Massa Lombarda, Daniele Bassi, President of Health and R&D, linked to the Ministry of Defense, Giorgio Noera, as well as WASP creator Massimo Moretti himself. The initiative put a strong and very positive focus on the potential of 3D printed housing in response to the foreseen global housing crisis. And, while the company is already actively working on how to 3D print secure, affordable, and sustainable houses for the general public, they are also part of a project for “advanced health and sanitary assistance during mass critical events.”
“We aim to join together two different workgroups to create houses that can have walls capable of repelling instects. An ambitious project not far from completion,” said Noera. “This technology will be of fundamental importance in areas where civil population needs to fight infection in order to survive.” This is an exciting project with the capacity to save hundreds if not thousands of lives.
The company has grown exponentially in the past few years, and seems to have big ambitions for the 3D printing industry. Interestingly, WASP does not receive any public financing and reinvests the entirety of its profits into research and development, no doubt helping them to innovate and expand at such an impressive rate. With yearly revenues nearing $2 million euro, they are now preparing to move into the U.S. market. “We demonstrated that ours was not just a dream, that low-cost housing is possible and that houses can be built with a 3D printer,” said Moretti. “We also developed a model for sustainability.”
Massimo Moretti speaking at the press conference today
Today’s press conference also revealed further details about the Big Delta’s global preview at the ‘Reality of Dream’ festival, taking place from September 18-20 in Massa Lombarda, Italy. The festival will also serve as the venue for a show by the Rigodon Theatrical Company, in which WASP will prove that their ambitions for the 3D printing industry are not only concerned with social issues, but with artistic ones as well: during the performance, the 12-meter printer will serve not only as a theatrical machine, but also as part of the screenplay.
“Theatre is made of relations, I don’t conceive it as a physical space. Utopia is necessary,” said Cavoli at the conference. Though we’re not entirely sure what that will look like, we’re very curious to find out.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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This is much better than the 3D printer I bought... although I wouldn't change it for the world.
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