Snails as living 3D printers: free forms for the architecture of tomorrow

Snail shells are some of the most fascinating structures in the animal world. The diversity of shape and structure of the shells is astonishing. The soft body of the animals is capable of generating a high-strength material compound using a production process that has developed over millions of years of evolution and is outstandingly suited to a continuous process of shell building. In spite of the wide range of shapes in the different species and the immense diversity, all snails use the same formation process, which is based on an additive procedure. When considered throughout the growth phase of a snail, the process can be compared to a continuous 3D printing process. However, unlike the additive print process, where the material is added in stacks, snails add material from a gland zone at the edge of the shell. The study of this process holds the promise of exciting innovations for production technologies.