3D printed mud huts offer quarantine comfort

In San Luis Valley, Colorado, large-format 3D printing design firm Emerging Objects has 3D printed a mud hut, complete with a fireplace, bedroom, and bathtub. 

Using sand, silt, clay and water, the Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm made three connected cylindrical huts that were then allowed to dry in the sun. 

The huts were named Casa Covida because they are currently occupied by a couple quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic. The huts are light enough to be carried and protected by an inflatable pink covering. Door handles were made with bioplastic and aluminum cans found littered in the desert. A loft for a bed was constructed from wood killed by an invasive beetle species. 

Emerging Objects has also made structures out of salt and a shed covered in succulents.