lime-based walls that can capture carbon forms first 3D printed airport building in bergamo

first 3D printed airport building in bergamo, italy

The dubbed first 3D printed airport building in Bergamo, Italy, is made up of lime-based mixture that can help capture and reduce carbon emissions. Designed by WASP, the structure acts as a small service building inside the logistics park of Milan Bergamo Airport. It has restrooms, a rest area for customs personnel, and walls that were printed by a machine rather than laid by hand. The team calls it Ol Casél, a phrase in the local Bergamo dialect that means ‘the little house,’ which lives up to how it is. 

The whole structure, from the first line of printed material to the day it was handed over, took 19 days, with the printing itself taking seven. The team used a crane that has a central mast and an arm that extends outward and carries a print head that extrudes material in continuous layers, building up the walls of a structure from the ground up. The system is modular, which means the arm length and print area can be adjusted depending on the size of the building. For Ol Casél, the printer built the walls layer by layer, following a digital model and without a formwork.

all images courtesy of WASP

Lime-based mixture can capture carbon emissions

The material for the 3D printed airport building in Bergamo, Italy used a lime-based mixture, which is believed to produce lower carbon emissions and, in some formulations, can actually absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they cure with a process called carbonation. By using a lime-based mixture rather than a cement-based one, Ol Casél’s walls carry a lower environmental footprint than a conventionally built structure of the same size. The building is not entirely 3D-printed, as the windows, doors, and roof were added after printing using typical construction. 

The project was promoted by construction company EDILCO Srl, in collaboration with SACBO, the operator of Milan Bergamo Airport, and WASP, the Italian technology company that built the printer used to make it. The building was completed in December 2025, a few months after development began, and the teams say that it passed all regulatory requirements for a structure in a controlled airport environment. So far, the structure is found within the logistics park of Milan Bergamo Airport.

the dubbed first 3D printed airport building in Bergamo, Italy, is made up of lime-based mixture

the lime-based mixture can help capture and reduce carbon emissions

the structure acts as a small service building inside the logistics park of Milan Bergamo Airport

detailed view of the walls

the structure has a rounded shape

the robot arm has an extrusion that pushes out the soft material

detailed view of the construction process

project info:

location: Milan Bergamo Airport

companies: WASP, EDILCO Srl, SACBO | @3dwasp, @edilcoaltamura, @milanbergamoairport

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