HAIlight A look behind the scenes: Heidelberg alumni visit Europe's largest 3D-printed building
A building made of papier-mâché - that's what the newly constructed “Wavehouse Campbell Heidelberg” looks like, which has been attracting attention in a newly developed quarter in Heidelberg's Südstadt district for several months now. 50 alumnae and alumni now had the opportunity to get to know the unique building as part of Heidelberg Alumni International's “HAIlights” event series. As Europe's largest 3D-printed building constructed entirely from recyclable materials, the Wavehouse is attracting a great deal of public interest.
Even the outer shape is remarkable: curved lines, horizontal ribbing and hardly a rectangular edge. It took just 170 hours of printing to complete the Wavehouse. A special concrete mixture was applied layer by layer by an oversized 3D printer, as if from a giant injection nozzle. “The material used is particularly stable,” explains Matthias Blatz to the tour participants, stroking the corrugated structure of the outer wall. “Normal concrete would sand out if you ran your hand over it.” Matthias Blatz is Managing Director of “Heidelberg iT Management”. The company operates a “server hotel” in the building and provides computing capacity for Heidelberg-based research institutes, medical facilities and companies from the biotech sector.
Due to the great interest in the Wavehouse, the IT manager agreed to give Heidelberg alumnae and alumni a tour of the otherwise inaccessible building on two occasions in March. It became clear that it is not only the shape of the building that is special, but also its sustainability. Should the Wavehouse be demolished, the building material can be liquefied and used to print a new building. The building material is therefore 100 percent recyclable. In addition, the 3D printed concrete used has 55 percent lower CO2 emissions than conventional Portland cement.
The tour of the Wavehouse was part of the “HAIlights” series of events, which gives alumni and alumnae of the university the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of their university or to discover exciting cultural and urban history.
