mud-spraying drones that build new homes could spell future for city housing

as part of london design festival 2018, designjunction showcasing mud shell, a housing project developed by french architect stephanie chaltiel that utilizes mud-spraying drones to build emergency architecture. chaltiel has joined forces with students from the architectural association in london to construct a prototype of one of her mud shells, an inhabitable structure comprised of a prefabricated light formwork that is coated in several layers of natural materials by drone spraying technology to become a sturdy and permanent structure.

images courtesy of stephanie chaltiel

the project centres around a digital tool that programs drones to ‘spray’ materials onto a prefabricated framework, combining the tech with ancient earth architecture principles such as wattle and daub. different layers of clay mixes are sprayed by drones to coat a light formwork with results in a sturdy high inertia construction.

‘due to its fast construction time and minimal labor requirements, mud shell has the potential to serve in emergency housing situations such as refugee camps‘, says chaltiel. ‘apart from the reach in difficult or high areas the choice of using a drone is as well to monitor the structure in progress and be able to apply different thicknesses and textures’.