Kind Designs uses huge 3D printer to make eco-friendly seawalls
Kind Designs has a lofty goal: To help coastal cities ward off flooding caused by sea level rise in a way that does not cause harm to marine life.
The process begins at the startup's manufacturing facility in Miami.
That's where the company uses an enormous 3D printing robot to mass produce "living seawalls" designed to mimic mangroves and coral reefs. Unlike traditional seawalls, algae and other marine life can grow on its non-toxic structures. The seawalls are also embedded with sensor systems to collect water quality data.
Coastal cities around the world are at imminent risk from flooding caused by rising sea levels. In response, local and federal agencies expect to spend billions of dollars on seawall construction in the coming decades. Kind Designs founder and CEO Anya Freeman said 3D-printing can cut seawall production time by 95% compared to traditional building methods.
"It's a product with real environmental benefits and you can get it at the same cost," she added. "By mass producing we'll eventually make it cheaper than a traditional seawall."
Building codes currently mandate that Kind Designs construct its seawalls with reinforcement steel, also called rebar. However, Freeman said the startup is able to use a mixture of concrete and recycled materials to build structures strong enough to stand without rebar, potentially increasing the lifespan of a seawall from approximately 40 to 100 years.
"With rebar, you have to replace them more often," Freeman said. "I hope the building codes will change, but right now we have to include rebar in the structures."
The company is testing out an alternative to steel rebar that uses recycled marine plastic, she added.
Kind Designs does not sell directly to consumers. It prints the seawall panels at its Miami facility and then sells them to construction contractors, who install them in coastal areas. Dock and Marine Construction is among its customers.
It uses a printer made by CyBe Construction, an Amsterdam-based company that specializes in 3D concrete printing. The massive device had to be shipped from Europe to Miami on a barge, Freeman said.
Founded in 2021, Kind Designs has already attracted financing from investors like billionaire entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" judge Mark Cuban. It closed a $5 million seed funding round late last year only months after winning the grand prize at the 2023 Florida Aerospace and Emerging Tech Forum.
The company's long term goal? To scale to the point where it can mass produce seawalls for the 500 cities across the planet at risk for flooding from sea level rise.
"Florida is the largest seawall market in the U.S., so we're starting here," she said.
