A 3D printed adobe art installation by Ronald Rael.

Pop-up Exhibition

Mud Futures

This unique installation by architect and artist Ronald Rael uses modern-day innovation to reimagine the 7,000-year-old technology of adobe. It will begin with a live demonstration of Rael using 3D printing to create a large art installation out of an adobe mixture of clay, straw, and sand, which will then be displayed at the History Colorado Center to show how ancient technologies live on today, and can be adapted to our future.

Ronald Rael co-founded Emerging Objects to use 3D printing to make architecture, building components, environments, and products. This installation will not only demonstrate the versatility of this technology, but will also tap into Rael's roots in southern Colorado's Conejos County and challenge the viewer to think differently about materials, space, and borders. 

Ronald Rael
Ronald Rael exhibition 4
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Ronald Rael exhibition 1

What makes Rael’s work so inspiring is the ways it reminds us of the scientific innovation inherent in ancestral knowledge; recasts the 7000-year-old technology of adobe construction into a contemporary context; and explores how our history might just hold the answers to the challenges of our future.

Dawn DiPrince, Executive Director of History Colorado