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.
