Tradition and Technology Inspires the World’s First Ever 3D-Printed Resort in Mozambique

Courtesy: The Boundary

A 740 acre of luxury resort sitting on the sand filled dune of the Benguerra island off Mozambique on the Eastern Coast of Africa has become the poster location for responsible leisure. The Kisawa Sanctuary is a luxurious eco-resort designed to integrate innovative technology, culture, and environmental awareness to the process of creating luxury. Dismantling the narrative of making luxury for luxury sake, founder, Nina Flohr worked with Kisawa’s sister organization, the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies to create a Sanctuary that fuses technology and nature.

Featuring 12 bungalows, each on a private acre separate from one another and equipped with swimming pools, beachfront views, and other top-of-the-line amenities, the Kisawa Sanctuary is a conglomeration of overawing structures made with sand textured walls and thatched roofs guaranteeing the kind of exclusivity that is the selling point of most luxurious getaway resorts. However, for this particular resort, what makes it stand out is not just the sleekness of her structures, the maximum privacy of the location, or the picturesque view of the Atlantic ocean it offers; even more appealing is the technology of its construction. For this project, a patented 3D sand-printing technology was commissioned.

Courtesy: The Boundary

Describing the process,  Condé Nast Traveler explains;  “a computer-generated design is sent to a 3D printer, where it’s divvied up into layers. The printer’s nozzle then draws in the desired material—in the case of Kisawa, a sand-and-seawater mortar—and pipes it out to create the structure from the bottom up.” While molding with 3D printers is not a new means of creating products or even buildings, choosing this method to create a luxury resort is a significant check on the standing narrative of how sustainability, culture, and technology hardly intertwine to become a complementary whole.

Speaking on the resort’s unusual architectural process, Nina Flohr enthused, “We have used design as a tool, not as a style, to ensure Kisawa is integrated, both culturally and environmentally into Mozambique.” It is this philosophy that threads together the very essence that makes Kisawa one of the most anticipated resorts of the summer. Firstly, the mortar that makes up the very material layered to become the structures were generated from the island’s own sands and saltwater. While the structures are not entirely built using 3D technology, the whole resorts have elements of 3D printing technology embedded in then.

Courtesy: The Boundary

Incorporating culture, local artisans, creators, builders, and artists around Benguerra were commissioned to create carpentry, masonry, weaving, textile, and the thatching that adds an aesthetically traditional appeal to the buildings that make up the resort. It is reported that this created employment for over a thousand locals during the construction process. The aesthetics pronounce luxury, but with the kind of warmth that is usually missing from the usual ultra-modern resorts. There is no particular sleekness to the facade, no refined geometry to the shapes. This resort blends with the fluid nature of its environment and the amoebic nature of the cultures it identifies with.

For tourists looking for a more sustainable avenue to relax and one with an interesting architectural backstory, the Kisawa sanctuary will become the toast of many in the years to come. However, this phenomenal area of land will perhaps be more significantly recognized for stirring the narrative on the possibility of sustainable architecture and the unexplored potential of existing technology and how they can be used to make impactful designs around the globe