Near Bologna, Italy, Mario Cucinella Architects and 3D-printing company WASP are building a new kind of habitat. It’s called TECLA, and it’s a 100% 3D-printed house made of clay harvested at the build site. The zero-waste process utilizes reusable and recyclable materials to produce affordable dwellings—and Cucinella believes that it’s the future of housing.

“Together with WASP, we aim at developing a habitat that responds to the increasingly urgent climate revolution and the needs of changes dictated by community needs,” says Cucinella.

Since 2012, Italy-based WASP has been developing 3D-printing technology to produce “zero-mile” homes—homes that don’t require material sourced from afar. Now, they’ve started building habitats akin to beehives with on-site clay.

“WASP takes inspiration from the potter wasp. We build 3D-printed houses using earth found on the spot, under a sustainable perspective. The oldest material and a state-of-the-art technology merge to give new hope to the world,” says WASP CEO Massimo Moretti.

The design is far more eco-friendly than traditional stick-built homes, and it can be replicated in a wide range of climates using locally available resources. Moretti sees the project as the basis for entire cities founded on circular economy principles, wherein resources used to build can be returned safely to the earth. A prototype dwelling is now under construction, and it’s expected to be completed by early 2020.

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