It is hard to walk through Venice, Italy without wondering how the place was built, its architecture rising inexplicably out of the dark water below, or how water, power and internet traverse its myriad canals. The Rialto Bridge is a great place to begin unpacking these mysteries.

Making this bridge possible is a forest of over 12,000 tree trunks burrowing below the surface. Dating back centuries, these foundations are embedded through loose soil below the waterline and into solid clay below, and support over 10,000 tons worth of structure above.

The whole city sits on over 10,000,000 tree trunks. The wood doesn’t rot because the poles are protected by surrounding mud, away from oxygen that would lead to decay.

Meanwhile, bridges like the Rialto serve a function beyond just connecting people — they also help water and utilities flow around the city, without needing to burrow underground or displace space in shallow canals.

The city still faces threats from structural decay, sinking structures and rising water levels, but perhaps the most amazing thing is that it is still standing at all hundreds of years after it was built.

“How long I’ve wanted this dream to come true,” wails Twisted Sister as a motorcycle zips through a mud pit that’s snatching the boots of its rider in this frankly ridiculous video of the Russian motorbike Taurus 2×2. The video shows the bike zooming through giant puddles, pulling a trailer piled with hay bales and even giving a second motorcycle a lift like it weighs next to nothing. Designed specifically for agricultural purposes and recreation in rural Russia, the bike definitely shows off what it can do, leaving no doubt that it can tackle some serious tasks.

Perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment is when the rider drops the Taurus right into a body of water and it gently bobs to the surface thanks to those bulbous tires and its mere 181-pound weight. It’s extra-light, amphibious and takes just five minutes to dismantle for transport inside another vehicle. It’s not street legal, however – riders have to stick to the back roads of Russia, but that’s really where the Taurus shines.

It may not be pretty, but it’s impressively aggressive, navigating landscapes that even the toughest dirt bikes wouldn’t dare take on. Can’t you just imagine shirtless Vladimir Putin on the back of this thing? The Taurus is currently only available in Russia, but its creators say they’re hoping to sell it internationally sometime soon.

Able to print full-sized structures from mud and clay, this 40-foot-tall 3D printer represents a huge step toward printing affordable housing from free materials. The project was unveiled yesterday, debuting with a live demonstration at a three day rally event in Italy along with a series of workshops and conferences.

Representing a hybrid of biomimicry, new technologies and ancient building techniques, the BigDelta printer from World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP) draws inspiration from natural and human precedents.

BigDelta’s structural strategies and resulting home shapes are informed by a breed of wasp that constructs mud homes as well as a long human tradition of creating earthen dwellings.

Building with water, dirt, clay and plant fibers taps into a set of plentiful organic resources, reduces environmental impacts, obviates the cost of and need to ship materials and provides naturally robust and insulated housing shells.

The lightweight steel frame of the printer itself, supporting a giant printing nozzle suspended in its open center, is easy to collapse and transport between construction sites.

This larger model follows a smaller Delta prototype used to execute a series of complex geometric structures at reduced size, testing the technology and materials.

The design aims to address a growing housing crisis: “by 2030, international estimates foresee a rapid growth of adequate housing requirements for over 4 billion people living with yearly income below $3,000. The United Nations calculated that over the next 15 years there will be an average daily requirement of 100.000 new housing units to meet this demand.”

Easy to disassemble and transport on demand, this 3D-printing solution uses natural materials to build completely stable homes from readily available resources.

Designed by WASP (World’s Advanced Saving Project) and deployed recently at a maker fair in Rome, the Delta device itself is lightweight and can be loaded onto a truck, moved then rebuilt in a matter of hours.

Structurally, the system employs curved walls, arches and domes to create solid buildings that can withstand the test of time. For its source material: dirt, clay and water are fed into the machine, leaving the results to dry naturally in the sun. Other substances like wool can be added to help bind the solution. Architecturally, the designs draw on regional vernaculars.

Part of WASP’s larger goal here is to raise awareness of non-plastic building materials that can be used in 3D printers, all with the same degree of precision found when using plastics. This process has started with demo models and is leveling up to full-scale structures.

As for future endeavors: “the company is in the process of exploring 3D printing implantable ceramics, such as hydroxylapatite, bioglass and aluminium oxide, to create bone implants with the same porous structure as natural bone.”