MUDDY ROBOTS is a new paradigm in building construction, coupling humankind’s oldest building material with advanced additive manufacturing technology to create housing that can save the planet.
We innovated a novel approach to 3D Printed Architecture.
In 2008, Founder Ronald Rael, in his book Earth Architecture, pondered the future of earthen architecture, suggesting it would be made using 3D Printing. Earth is an inherently ecological material. The built environment generates 40% of annual global CO2 emissions. Of those total emissions, building operations are responsible for 27% annually, while building and infrastructure materials and construction (typically referred to as embodied carbon) are responsible for an additional 13% annually. Earth construction produces ZERO carbon dioxide emissions. Earth has excellent thermal mass properties, which can maintain comfortable interior temperatures without the need for mechanical heating and cooling lessening the production of CO2 via the architecture. The utilization of earth requires little embodied energy and structures made of it are highly recyclable. When abandoned, earthen buildings simply melt back into the ground, and their ruins can be used to grow vegetation or be reused again as a building material. The fusion of earth with advanced design and construction is not only a strategy to build sustainably and ecologically — it is also a solution to our global climate challenges.
Muddy Robots is a design-build architecture practice working at the intersection of cutting-edge fabrication technology and one of humanity's most enduring building materials - earth. Using mobile robotic systems and proprietary software, we 3D print structures from locally sourced soils, producing architecture that is thermally efficient, carbon-intelligent, and unmistakably original.
We begin with respect for earth as a building material of remarkable capability, and for craft as the discipline that unlocks it. Robotic fabrication extends the reach of the human hand, allowing us to shape earth into structures where form, performance, and beauty are inseparable. A wall's geometry is also its strength, its insulation, and its character — each the consequence of a single, considered act of making.
We work with clients who want more than a building. They want a building that belongs to its place, that ages with the grace of its materials, and that is crafted carefully enough to be passed down — architecture built not just for this generation, but for the ones that follow.
Ronald Rael: Founder & Creative Director
Ronald is an architect, designer, author, and entrepreneur whose work explores the intersection of earth, technology, and architecture. As Founder of Muddy Robots, he is pioneering robotic construction methods that use natural earthen materials to create sustainable, low-carbon buildings.
Rael is internationally recognized for advancing 3D-printed earthen architecture and for demonstrating how ancient building traditions can inform the future of construction. He is also the co-founder of Emerging Objects, a groundbreaking 3D-printing innovation studio, and co-founder of FORUST, a company that developed technologies for 3D printing with wood. His work has been recognized with a Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Award for Digital Design
Ronald is a co-founder of the award-winning design practice Rael San Fratello, whose work has been recognized by the London Design Museum, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, SFMOMA, and other leading institutions worldwide.
Andrew Kudless: Founder & Technology Director
Andrew is a designer and co-founder of Muddy Robots, bringing two decades of research in robotic fabrication, parametric design, and material systems to the challenge of building with earth. As founder of the award-winning studio Matsys, whose work lives in the permanent collections of SFMOMA, the Centre Pompidou, and the FRAC Centre, he has consistently operated at the intersection of computation, craft, and construction. He is the Kendall Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Houston's Hines College of Architecture & Design, where he directs the CRAFT Lab, one of the country's foremost environments for robotic construction research. He is also the co-author of Flux: Architecture in a Parametric Landscape and Drawing Codes: Experimental Protocols of Architectural Representation. At Muddy Robots, he is developing the algorithms, geometries, and fabrication logics that will allow earthen 3D printing to scale — turning an ancient material into a precision building system for a more beautiful, resilient, and sustainable world.
Virginia San Fratello: Founder & Design Operations Director
Virginia is an architect and interior designer whose work bridges traditional craft and advanced fabrication technologies. Bringing more than twenty-five years of professional experience to Muddy Robots, she contributes deep expertise in digital materiality, finishes, lighting, and a deep understanding of the cultural role materials have in shaping how we live and build.
Her work is grounded in the belief that matter makes culture, and that beauty is not separate from performance, but integral to it. She explores how traditional craft practices can be translated through robotics and digital fabrication to create architecture, interiors, furniture and objects that are materially intelligent, environmentally responsive, and enduring.
San Fratello is also the co-founder of Emerging Objects, a 3D printing MAKE tank focused on innovation in architecture, products, and building systems, and co-founder of Forust, the world’s first company dedicated to 3D printing with wood waste. Her work has been recognized with a Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Award for Digital Design and exhibited and collected internationally, including by MoMA, SFMOMA, LACMA, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.