In the late 15th century, polymath Leonardo Da Vinci drafted the first designs for a self-supporting bridge. Six centuries later and the bridge is still one of the most significant architectural inventions of human history. Recently, Da Vinci’s self-supporting bridge has inspired a project at the Polytechnic University of Bari, where a team in the ArCoD department led by Professor Giuseppe Fallacara, has partnered with 3D printing company WASP and stone processing specialists to create a 3D printed self-supporting bridge. The bridge, suitably named “Da Vinci’s Bridge”, has progressed in its development with a finished prototype.
The prototype, which spans about six meters, has been in development for over a year, with the research team and WASP experimenting with sustainable building materials made from waste stone powders and lime-based binder. The material used, which met the needs of the project—as well as the partners’ sustainability goals—was developed in cooperation with B&Y, a startup founded by Vincenzo Gurrado that specializes in reclaiming stone processing byproducts to make 3D printing materials.
This material was used to 3D print a series of blocks using the WASP 3MT LDM Concrete, a large-scale construction 3D printer with a build volume of 1000 x 1000 mm. In total, 13 blocks were 3D printed, each with a different geometry. These blocks were then assembled by the University of Bari team using a temporary wooden centering system to create a bridge that can support itself simply through the principle of stereotomy (i.e. using pieces with specific geometries to create a whole structure without the need for adhesives or joining).
While Da Vinci’s original bridge design—though never built—was intended to span the massive Golden Horn waterway in Istanbul, the significantly smaller six-meter-long prototype bridge will be used as a pedestrian bridge and represents a successful first step in the broader Da Vinci bridge project. Next, the research team will evaluate the bridge material’s mechanical properties and further refine the printing process. The ultimate aim is to develop and validate more sustainable building materials and methods.
The Da Vinci bridge prototype is the latest bridge to utilize 3D printing in its construction. Readers will likely already be familiar with the famous 3D printed steel bridge, built by MX3D, which spanned a central canal in Amsterdam for two years. Concrete company Holcim has also been developing 3D printed bridges that emphasize sustainability, including the Striatus concrete bridge, which was unveiled in 2021 at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, and more recently the Phoenix bridge, made in collaboration with Block Research Group at ETH Zurich, Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Design Group and incremental3D.
