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Design

3D Printing Robots are the Masons of the 21st Century

ZA Architects new “Smart Masonry” construction method adapts one of mankind’s earliest building techniques to the Digital Age.

Images courtesy of ZA Architects, via

The ancient art of stone masonry, which dates all the way back to Neolithic man, has met its modern match in ZA Architects digital stone fabrication process. The group’s newly developed Smart Masonry construction method replaces a mason’s blistered hands and hefty stonework with a highly efficient, giant robotic arm and lightweight, latticed structures.

ZA’s Smart Masonry method combines large, prefabricated elements with 3D-printed parts. Working out of a robotic construction station, the motorized appendage weaves a geometric stonework floor-by-floor in a “compact and labor-effective” method, according to its creators. This seamless mesh of beehive-like stone replaces traditional elements like walls, columns, and beams. Through digital optimization, the mesh increases the structure’s load-bearing capacity while decreasing its overall surface area.

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Below are ZA’s renderings and prototypes for the prospective construction of the Building-Makers Center in Berlin:

Via Archdaily

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