'Humanitarian-driven solution': World’s first '3-D printed school' to open in Madagascar

A nonprofit organization in Madagascar is using innovative, humanitarian-driven tech solutions for building the world’s first ‘3D printed schools’. To help alleviate hardships, and provide for education for kids amid the global health crisis, Thinking Huts has come up with a design to make learning accessible in places where opportunities for getting an education is marred by deepening financial disparities and the aftermath of a deadly pandemic. American philanthropist and founding CEO of the organization will open doors to the world’s unique 3D printed schools fitted with solar panels and a beehive configuration that allows for the attachment of multiple schools, according to Thinking Huts’ founder Maggie Grout’s statement to the local broadcasters and on the official website. 

Read:  'View Of Amusement Park’: Image Of Human Cell Model Leaves Netizens Mesmerised

Read: Google Search Introduces Users To 3D Baby Yoda; Here Is All You Need To Know

The non-profit organization, based out of Madagascar runs various programs for the upliftment of the underprivileged communities in Madagascar. With the onslaught of the global pandemic that has caused the largest disruption in education systems, affecting nearly 1.6 billion in more than 190 countries, as per UN data, Thinking Huts has come to rescue as it will erect 3D schools giving the education system a new direction in the country. World’s first pilot 3D printed school is set to be constructed on a university campus of Ecole de Management et d’Innovation Technologique (EMIT), in Fianarantsoa. It will provide learning to the local Malagasy kids in classrooms from preschool through high school for the students, spokesperson for Studio Mortazavi, a San Francisco–based architectural design agency who Thinking Huts partnered with told AD magazine. 

[Beehive configuration of each 3D printed school will have multiple campus attachments. Credit: Thinking Huts website]

3D school designs

The futuristic campuses will have a beehive configuration network with several campuses embedded across one 3D structure. The simple and effective school infrastructure will don a hybrid design with 3-D printed walls and ‘pockets’ on the pod wall which will contain vertical farms, which the children can even climb. Keeping health safety protocols in mind, the 3D schools will have Plexi partitions on the desks and natural air circulation. The colour of the building constructed out of 3D material which is usually grey will have more pigments from the earth to give a natural effect. The outer shell of the 2 to 3 inch thick walls will have a spiderweb-like structure, according to the Studio, that will have plumbing lines and electrical equipment running through the building. The project is anticipated to be launched by the organization between 2021 to 2022, in the month of December to March in Madagascar, according to Thinking Hut’s statement. 

Read: Harvard Researchers Develop Technique To Create 3D Images Of Human Chromosomes

Read: Israel Start-up Creates World’s First Plant-based Steak With 3D Printing