Researchers want to print a tower

The village of Mulegns on the Julier Pass road in Graubünden will be home to a new cultural site:  Giovanni Netzer, theatre director and founder of the Origen cultural festival, wants to build a new white tower. This will be 23 meters high and have four floors. Right at the top, under the dome, will be a stage for theatre plays, dance performances and concerts. The tower will be visually reminiscent of the Graubünden confectionery tradition.

Netzer will apply digital building technology for the tower. To this end, he is working with researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). The White Tower has been designed and planned by ETH Professor Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer from the Digital Building Technologies research group, together with Netzer’s Origen Foundation. With Robert Flatt, Walter Kaufmann and Andreas Wieser, three other ETH professors from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication are involved in the development process.

The 3D-​printed white concrete columns for the tower will be printed on site. Those who wish, will be able to watch at the public construction site. A robot will apply the white concrete layer by layer. According to a press release from ETH, the tower will be one of the tallest 3D-​printed, robot-​built structures ever. The 3D printing approach to construction allows complex geometries to be produced.

Swiss President of the Confederation Guy Parmelin was also in attendance during the presentation of the project on Tuesday. Construction is scheduled to start in spring 2022. The process of dismantling has also already been planned, meaning the concrete elements can all be taken apart later and the tower theoretically rebuilt at another location.