Tor Alva – or “White Tower” in the local Romansh language – was unveiled in the Swiss town of Mulegns, home to 11 people, and is now open to the public.
You’d be forgiven for mistaking Tor Alva as a movie set for a fantasy realm like Rivendell, the elven refuge in The Lord of the Rings. With its flowing white contours and dramatic Alpine backdrop, the tower has a distinctly otherworldly presence.
And yet, the inspiration behind it is far more human – and arguably more delicious. Standing at 30 meters (98 feet), the world’s tallest 3D-printed structure is meant to evoke an ornate layered cake.
It’s a nod to the emigration history of confectioners from Graubünden, the largest and most eastern canton of Switzerland, where the town is located, who exported their craftsmanship throughout Europe.
It is hoped that the tower will breathe new life into Mulegns, a sleepy Alpine village facing depopulation and currently home to just 11 residents. Starting May 23rd, it will open daily for guided tours, and from July, it will also host live performances.
The project was created by the cultural foundation Nova Fundaziun Origen together with ETH Zurich, one of Switzerland’s leading universities.
The tower was designed by architect Michael Hansmeyer and ETH professors Benjamin Dillenburger, Walter Kaufmann, and Robert Flatt, with support from the ETH spin-off Mesh and the construction company Zindel United.
How was it built?
The tower was printed using the concrete mix that was specially developed to be soft enough to bond delicate structures while hardening quickly to support subsequent layers.
Instead of pouring the concrete into molds, a robotic arm extruded the mix in thin, precise layers – just five millimeters thick – with no need for formwork.
To keep the tower standing strong, a second robotic arm followed along, inserting reinforcement rings every 20 centimeters in a method described as “reinforcement that grows.”
The finished structure consists of 124 custom elements, including 48 structural columns. These were printed off-site over the course of about 900 hours and then transported to Mulegns for final assembly.
“The White Tower is more than a technical triumph – it inspires the building sector, encourages sustainable tourism, and offers new cultural space. It also gives a fading village a new chance. That’s extraordinary,” said Giovanni Netzer, founder of the Origen foundation.
Tor Alva is intended to remain in the town for five years and can be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere after. Cybernews recently reported on a Starbucks coffee shop in Brownsville, Texas, that was planned using AI and 3D-printed on-site.
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