We believe in preserving resources, erecting durable architecture, and reintroducing arts and sculpture in edifices.
Concrete is the most consumed material on earth, second only to water.
What if we used 50% less?
Le Molding is a 2 steps process:
1) A 3D printer that produce special temporary sand moulds.
2) An ingenious concrete casting process that saves +50% ressources.
…like Bamboo or Bones!
Natural structures know how to use matter efficiently.
Today, topological optimisation is well understood, but casting such a wall is still very unpractical.
Only LE MOLDING can meet up to this challenge of saving 60% of concrete!
LE MOLDING has been selected and exhibited at Berlin’s Akademie der Künst (Academie of arts)
Here is a short documentary Local Berlin TV RBB did about LeMolding.
Printing building elements require big machine.
A big 3D printer mobilize big volumes of material.
The Printing material is a cheap sand, and is infinitely reusable.
The cross section you see under this text is a sand mould being printed layer by layer.
The dark areas will be solid, the light ones will remain loose sand.
Between the two identical shapes, there will be space for pouring concrete.
Here is a plaster cast of the Sand-Formwork produced earlier.
The outer shell has been removed.
The cast is not perfect.
The shape is very simple, I call it the ZORG:
A square, becoming a circle, spiraling upward.
Yet, it’s very unpractical to do such a mould by hand,
or to manufacture it by standard means.
LE MOLDING makes it a breeze.
Now, we can dream of any shape,
from highly technical to highly artistic,
from rough to detailed surface,
from compact to lightweight porosity.
BIOMIMICRY is the way.
Any shape that requires a lot of workforce is eligible
Eric Le Méné
+336 2509 3418
ericlemene@gmail.com