MIT Engineers 3D Printed Glass Bricks for Construction

Glass is remarkable because as long as it isn’t contaminated, it can be infinitely recycled without properties changing. That’s part of the appeal of its use in additive manufacturing, and compared to traditional glass casting, AM methods may allow for greater design flexibility and reduced costs. With these characteristics in mind, engineers at MIT wanted to test the viability of using AM glass to produce structural building components. So, they are developing 3D printed glass masonry units that can be stacked and interlocked like LEGO bricks.

The research was conducted by MIT engineers Daniel Massimino, Ethan Townsend, Charlotte Folinus, Michael Stern, and Kaitlyn Becker. Together, they fabricated strong, multilayered bricks, out of soda-lime glass, each shaped like a figure eight. Each block has two round pegs like a LEGO, enabling them to be arranged and rearranged endlessly, allowing for a rich composition diversity and a long-lasting lifecycle. If not rearranged, the bricks could be melted down to be printed again.

Printing the glass brick with the custom 3D printing process (photo credits: Ethan Townsend)

In an article by MIT News, Massimino explained, “With the figure-eight shape, we can constrain the bricks while also assembling them into walls that have some curvature.” The engineers’ reconfigurable glass masonry aligns with the concept of circular construction, the idea that building materials should be reused, wherever possible, to reduce carbon emissions associated with a building’s total construction. The glass blocks’ sustainability was a driving factor for the research.