3DTectonix blog: Cool Your Home Using 3D Printed ‘Cool Bricks’

COOL YOUR HOME USING 3D PRINTED ‘COOL BRICKS’

ESCAPE FROM THE HEAT WITH WATER AND 3D PRINTING

There are so many applications of 3D printing already that there is hardly any aspect of our lives that has not been affected by the development of this high-tech industry.

Perhaps one of the most promising and innovative application of 3D printing is 3D printed building, since there are architectural companies already constructing buildings with 3D printed concrete that use recycled materials. If you have missed that, read our recent posts about 3D printing architecture.

When one can design an entire building and actually build it with 3D printing, why not apply this method to interior design?

That was the thought that made Emerging Objects, creative  frontrunners in the 3D printing industry develop an interior design ceramic element called “Cool Brick” that uses water to cool homes in hot and dry climates. This project is unique and as the first of its kind it attracts a lot of attention, especially at the current exhibition in San Francisco called “Data Clay: Digital Strategies for Parsing the Earth”. If you are somewhere around San Francisco, you can visit the exhibit until April 19.

The method used for the realization of “Cool Brick” is called evaporative cooling. It is the addition of water vapor into air, which causes a lowering of the temperature of the air. Before the advent of refrigeration, evaporative cooling was used for millennia. Porous ceramic vessels were used to cool water by evaporation through their walls. Frescoes from about 2500 BC show slaves fanning jars of water to cool rooms.

The project developers say they were inspired by the Muscatese Evaporative cooling window, which combines a wood screen, or mashrabiya, and a ceramic vessel filled with water. The idea behind the “cool brick” masonry system is to be used for building of walls that passively cool interiors in desert environments.

The material used for “Cool Brick” is 3D printed porous ceramic. The bricks can be set in mortar to have an entire wall, since each brick absorbs water like a sponge and is designed as a three dimensional lattice that allows air to pass through the wall.

As air moves through the 3D printed brick, the water that is held in the micro-pores of the ceramic evaporates, bringing cool air into an interior environment, lowering the temperature using the principle of evaporative cooling.

The bricks are modular have an interlocking design, and can be stacked together to make a screen. The 3D lattice creates a strong bond when set in mortar. The shape of the brick also creates a shaded surface on the wall to keep a large percentage of the wall’s surface cool and protected from the sun to improve the wall’s performance.

The design team behind this amazing innovation has proven they have an eco-friendly mind by using recycled materials in past projects. With this new development, they have combined ancient technology with modern printing capabilities to meet the very serious question of how to reduce cooling costs as global temperatures rise. This may be a great solution for climates highly affected by the global warming and, of course, for generally hot and dry environments.