Reinventing one of the world’s most ubiquitous building materials, this concrete alternative developed at MIT can be 3D-printed then disassembled without wasting unnecessary energy or creating useless debris. Imagine the possibilities temporary concrete architecture that is easy to deconstruct with zero material loss.

Rock Print effectively shoves rocks into position, binding them with computer-controlled string. The result in this demonstration at the Chicago Architecture Biennial is a rigid 13-foot column that can be cleanly unraveled into its constituent parts.

A product of the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this approach suggests a new way to think about concrete, a material that is typically cheap and easy to use in construction but expensive and wasteful when it comes to demolition.

As Skylar Tibbits explains, “We are using a similar technique to powder-based printing. There is a container, material is deposited layer by layer and a ‘binder (in this case the string) is applied to each layer in the specific pattern of the slice.”

Effectively any shape is possible thanks to the 3D printing process, while the results are strong and durable, relying on the physics of jamming and collective strength of composited stones. The reversibility of the process makes this a far more eco-friendly way to build rigid structures from durable materials that still dismantle on demand.

Bringing together cutting-edge technologies and an ancient approach to resisting earthquake damage, the so-called Quake Column marries tradition and high-tech to create a bold new structural solution needing no mortar nor rebar to reinforce it.

Incan masons historically interlocked complex three-dimensional stone shapes in order to allow movement during earthquakes while preventing buildings from becoming structurally compromised in the process. The puzzle-like interlinking of the constituent parts helps structures resist seismic shocks, keeping them from becoming detached either horizontally or vertically.

A modern-day company in California, Emerging Objects, has taken this page out of history and reapplied it with 3D printing, allowing their new variants of these old blocks to be fabricated quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Unlike their heavy stone predecessors, these new versions are can be lightweight, modular and made on demand, including built-in handles for carrying printed-on instructions showing builders how to assemble them into columns.

These contemporary equivalents are designed to be load-bearing, code-compliant materials that could be used in actual architectural applications of all kinds, all without steel reinforcement or mortar cementing the connections. More on the structural physics at work via Inhabitat: “the absence of resonant frequencies and stress concentration points made the structures more earthquake resistant. During earthquakes, the dry-stone walls built by the Incas would move slightly and resettle without any damage. Rounded corners and an incline of three to five degrees contributed to their stability.”

Like a giant-sized Swiss Army knife, this narrow column unfolds to reveal everything your bathroom could need – a NASA-worthy, space-age modular design idea.

A water-transmitting ‘spinal cord’ connects independently-rotating ‘vertabrae’, each of which includes a core function, from shower heads and cisterns above to storage in the middle and basins and toilets below.

The combined system mounts to the ceiling and floor to form single set of pivot points, providing stability for the spiraling functions in between and a single simple pair of inflows and outflows.

From Design Odyssey: “The Vertebrae was designed by Paul Hernon and it basically incorporates a toilet, a sink, a water cistern and two showers into an 8 foot tall compact steel column that can be folded up when not in use.

As for the intention: “It was designed for those living in a small cramped apartment who might not have the room for a bathroom with all the amenities they would like. Each module is hand crafted from 3mm aluminum with polished hand welded seams.”