AlgoLoam

Overview

In 2023, architect Elena Vlasceanu set out to turn an idea she had nurtured for years into an EU-funded research project. With no prior experience writing such proposals, she invested months of consistent effort assembling a consortium of partners across Europe — and the proposal won an EIC Pathfinder Challenges grant under the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme (Grant Agreement 101161620). The four-year project officially began in October 2024.

AlgoLoam develops self-supporting, lightweight loam walls reinforced with algorithmically generated 3D natural fibres — a fully biodegradable, recyclable construction system positioned to replace cement- and lime-based walls in low-carbon building. The work is delivered by an interdisciplinary team of architects, material scientists, textile-technology experts, biomimetics experts, sustainability experts, mechanical engineers, loam/clay product developers, and programmers, working through collaborative, iterative processes to create critical interactions between disciplines. AlgoLoam is one of ten projects in the DigiTrio cluster on digitalisation in AEC.

Scope

OnceMore is in charge of the algorithmic generation and optimization (geometrical and structural) of the AlgoLoam walls, unifying the work of every partner into one software solution, a master configurator that takes into consideration the Life Cycle Analysis as well as the structural stability and physical properties of the wall.