Ever since she was a 15-year-old high school student, Maggie Grout had a vision for doing good in the world using technology.
“I thought it would be great to use technology for good and apply this technology to build schools, which there is such a big need for in the world,” she said.
At the time, she founded Thinking Huts, a nonprofit dedicated to making education more accessible with humanitarian-driven technology.
She was planning for something bigger, and, after six years developing relationships and forming partnerships, she’s finally ready to take the next steps.
Grout, now a 21-year-old senior at CU Boulder, recently announced a partnership with architectural design agency Studio Mortazavi to develop a pilot project to build the world’s first 3D printed school in Madagascar.
The pilot school will consist of a hybrid design featuring 3D printed walls and locally-sourced construction materials for the roof, door and more.
Studio Mortazavi will handle the design aspects and Finnish tech company Hyperion Robotics will print the school, while Thinking Huts handles the funding to back the project.
The nonprofit aims to raise about $350,000 from private donors, corporate sponsorships and more to bring the project to life.
The school will be housed on the campus of EMIT in southern Madagascar and will hold between 30 and 40 students. Utilizing Hyperion’s honeycomb-style printing, Thinking Huts hopes to begin construction on the school in the summer of 2021.
Once they prove out the concept at EMIT, Grout is hopeful to form additional partnerships to build more schools.
“With our concept we’ll be decreasing construction time to a matter of days, allowing us to build more schools in the long run,” she said.
Madagascar was the chosen pilot location for this project due to the country’s potential for economic growth, political stability and solar energy opportunities, Grout said.
After six years envisioning this project, Grout reflected on the work it took to get to this point.
“As a young founder, it is hard at times to be taken seriously,” she said. “I spent a lot of time doing research and partnership development.”
She attributes her determination to her father, Harry Grout, an original co-founder of MapQuest.
“A lot of it is perseverance and not giving up,” she said of her father’s advice. “He encouraged me when a lot of people wouldn’t.”
