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House Printing. Additive manufacturing technology for disaster areas.

Project description

3D-printed houses those in need can call home

Scientists and engineers have been pushing the limits of 3D printing both to ever smaller and ever larger and more complex components. The process has been wildly successful in reducing manufacturing time and cost of components in sectors from medicine and healthcare, fashion and consumer products to automotive and aerospace. The idea of 3D-printed buildings is much newer. The EU-funded HOP project is supporting Spanish SME Huritrabe in developing pioneering house-printing technology, aimed not at the wealthiest but at those suddenly in great need and under great duress – victims of natural disasters or refugees fleeing armed conflict. Nature-inspired architectures using local materials will enable rapid construction of temporary housing for those who have lost their own.

Objective

"Unfortunately, natural disasters exist and will continue to exist in our environment. Recently, they have occurred in many areas (Sumatra-Andaman 2004 earthquake-tsunami, with 1 million people left homeless; an earthquake in Concepcion, Chile, 2010, with half a million homes destroyed and another million and a half damaged houses or the recent Nepal earthquake of 2015, with more than 130,000 houses destroyed and another 86,000 damaged). In 2015, 60 million people were displaced because of armed conflicts, climate change or natural disasters. Therefore, Huritrabe wants to develop a technology, House Printing (HoP), aimed at the construction of ephemeral houses in disaster areas through additive manufacturing that uses vernacular materials recycled ""in situ"". The idea arose from reproducing the collaborative work systems that exist in nature itself, such as swarms of bees, or ant colonies. Collaborative work obtains better results and allows the solution of problems of scale, impossible to crack in any other way, like in the cases of the Pyramids, Stonehenge, anthills or hives. The other sources of inspiration have been the primitive and more elemental constructions made by ancient cultures such as the Chilean Mapuche ruca, the Eskimo igloo or the simple but robust rammed earth constructions, resistant to adverse weather, earthquakes, as well as ecological and sustainable."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

HURITRABE SL
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
CALLE CANONIGA 14, PLANTA 3
33003 OVIEDO
Spain

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Noroeste Principado de Asturias Asturias
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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