Tor Alva: The Tallest 3D-Printed Building in the World
Standing at 30 meters tall, the Tor Alva tower in Switzerland has officially become the world's tallest 3D-printed structure, showcasing the breakthrough potential of digital construction without formwork.
Three-dimensional (3D) printers can generate three-dimensional objects, enabling numerous applications, particularly in industry. Three-dimensional printing is also suitable for manufacturing spare parts. In 2025, a tower approximately 30 meters high (including the base) was dedicated in the small mountain village of Mulegns in Canton Graubünden, Switzerland. This structure, shown in Figures 1–4, is the tallest 3D-printed building in the world. Nova Fundaziun Origen, a Swiss cultural foundation that collaborated on the structure with ETH Zurich, intend it to help revitalize the tiny village on the Julier Pass.
To construct the building, an industrial robot at ETH Zurich applied specially developed concrete layer by layer without the need for supporting molds. The shaping is based on complex algorithms which simultaneously create structure and ornamentation. Five months were required to print the column elements. The White Tower, or Tor Alva in the Rhaeto-Romance language, commemorates the Graubünden confectioners who emigrated throughout Europe in the 19th to early 20th century. The circular, four-story building with its 48 columns demonstrates the capability of digital construction to enable load-bearing structures without formwork.
This blog post is based on the following book:
Herbert Bruderer. Turning Points in the Analog and Digital World. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2026), 520 pages, 533 illustrations, 34 tables, https://doi.org/10.1145/3755991
Herbert Bruderer is a retired lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich and a historian of technology. He recently was added to the Honor Roll of the IT History Society.
Source: Hacker News
