The small alpine village of Mulegns in Switzerland has a unique new feature — the town of 11 residents is now home to the world’s tallest 3D-printed building. The Tor Alva (which means White Tower) has four floors and stands 98.5 feet tall.
Researchers at ETH Zurich, led by architect Michael Hansmeyer and ETH Professor of Digital Building Technologies Benjamin Dillenburger, designed Tor Alva. It consists of 32 white printed concrete columns with a “ring-shaped steel reinforcement element” every 26 centimeters for added stability. It took about 900 hours of printing time over five months to build the structure in sections, which were then assembled onsite in Mulegns to create the finished product.
Tor Alva has a maximum capacity of 32 people, and there are stairs on each floor while the top level is designed to serve as a performance space. The structure is open for guided tours, and staged performances on the top floor will begin in July. It was designed so that it can be dismantled back into sections, so the plan is for it to remain in Mulegns for about five years before potentially being moved elsewhere.
