The Core

Why We Are Here => Water Cooler => Topic started by: ergophobe on February 23, 2026, 10:56:28 PM

Title: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: ergophobe on February 23, 2026, 10:56:28 PM
https://www.yankodesign.com/2026/02/19/mexico-just-turned-corn-waste-into-3d-printed-buildings/

And the waste water from processing the corn gets used too
Title: Re: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: rcjordan on February 24, 2026, 12:32:05 AM
I've been watching assorted bio-construction. Nobody seems to mention vermin.
Title: Re: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: Brad on February 24, 2026, 07:40:20 AM
>vermin

That's what always worried me about straw bale construction.
Title: Re: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: rcjordan on February 24, 2026, 04:44:59 PM
>straw bale construction.

Yeah, there's a guy in EU mainland going nuts about that.  I keep thinking "Yeah, buddy, keep doing that and you're going to get to see a rat king."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_king
Title: Re: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: ergophobe on February 25, 2026, 12:18:03 AM
We have friends with a straw bale house. The builder of our house is a straw bale specialist. His worry for our house was snow leaning against the house rather than pests.

We've had plenty of squirrels in the walls of our stick frame house. I don't think straw bale houses fare any worse.

And I don't think a concrete that uses corn necessarily has a problem with pests any more than a plastic bag derived from biofuels does. In both cases, I don't think the end product is edible per se.
Title: Re: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: Brad on February 27, 2026, 08:45:35 AM
Over the last couple of decades a lot of different alternative building technologies have been promoted with big announcements but then seem to disappear. (ie. Terrabrick, Hempcrete, straw bale, foamed spray concrete, various 3-D printing...)

3-D print corn waste crete makes a lot of sense in regions where you have a surplus of corn waste so it will be interesting to see where they go with this.

One question I have about 3-D in general is without rebar how strong is it against earthquakes where the earth shifts sideways rather than bouncing up and down?
Title: Re: Mexico Just Turned Corn Waste Into 3D-Printed Buildings
Post by: rcjordan on February 27, 2026, 11:46:35 AM
>quakes

It'd be easy to design & build a cheap 'slider' layer between the foundation and the structure.  The concrete could have -also cheap- fiber strands added to the mix.