To provide a boost to education in Madagascar, an American NGO had the idea of creating a printed school in the country. While the project ultimately failed to earn the title of the world’s first 3D-printed school, the initiative remains remarkable and should be of great help to young local students.
An innovative initiative focused on education
While 3D printing technologies are already widespread for creating small objects, this can also be used in larger projects, such as the construction of houses and other types of buildings. Although it is not yet very common, the use of 3D printing in the field of construction has many advantages, particularly in terms of price, time savings and durability. These are the advantages that have pushed the NGO Thinking Huts to build a 3D printed school in Madagascar.
Founded by Maggie Grout (22 years old) in 2015, Thinking Huts is an organization focused on education and wants to take advantage of the benefits of new technologies to work in this direction. Given the dire educational situation in Madagascar – with less than 30% of Malagasy children having access to secondary education – the NGO chose the country to set up what was to be the very first printed school in the world. However, a school built in Malawi has won this title.
Despite this disappointment, the project finally came to fruition, and the organization completed the construction of its 3D printed school. Remember that for the realization of this project, Thinking Huts worked in tandem with architecture firm Studio Mortazavi and 3D printing technology expert Hyperion Robotics. The original plan for the construction consisted of a building of 157 square meters that could accommodate 30 students. The building was to be equipped with solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system.
An amazing project
In the end, several modifications were made to the building; in particular, the solar panels and the water collection system have not been installed. But in the base, it is indeed a construction whose walls have been printed in 3D. It is useful to specify that the school in its entirety was not built with 3D technology. Indeed, the upper part of the building as well as the openings were built with materials of local origin, mainly wood. Work on these parts of the school was carried out by local workers.
As for the actual 3D printed part, the large 65 square meter room was built with a 3D printer extruding a cement-like mixture in a process that took 18 hours. Named Bougainvillea Where hut v1.0, the school was built in Fianarantsoa, a city in the center-west of Madagascar. If this is the second 3D printed school in the world, Thinking Huts wants to make more. ” We look forward to growing to meet the need to create schools while bringing people together and inspiring the next generation to make a difference. It’s just the beginning “, thus declared Maggie Grout, according to a report of 3D Natives.
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