This year, as Sandra Gómez, councilor for the Valencia City Council, has commented, it is being historic for the city for several reasons. On the one hand, after a long time, finally Valencia once again has a hotel occupancy in its Fallas that borders on 100%. Second, for the first time in history a ninot made from rice straw using a 3D printer.
Going into a little more detail, we have to talk about a Retro American and a Venus They are the first two ninots made of rice straw that are part of a municipal fault. These two figures have been created thanks to the research carried out by four professors of the Polytechnic University of Valencia with the collaboration of the City Council with which they have a research and development agreement signed through the Las Naves Innovation Center.
A chair and a Venus are the first two ninots in history made by 3D printing with rice straw.
From the municipal council, specifically the councilor for Festive Culture, Pere Fuset:
The declaration of the Fallas as Intangible Heritage of Humanity is an opportunity to be even better, to seek excellence; and that is one of the aspects that the research project of the Polytechnic University is pursuing, which, in a few months, and with the help of the Valencia City Council, is giving excellent results. To date, they have already been able to perform 3D printing with rice paste, with rice straw and balsa wood, with a very sustainable system, with a very clean burning, which I am convinced that in the future it will be a great help for that Fallas artists continue working without losing the slightest creativity and betting on an even more sustainable model of our party.
On the other hand, Jordi Perís, Councilor for Innovation, highlighted:
The use of rice straw in the realization of the fallero ninots solves important problems, on the one hand, it allows the use of materials that do not put the health of the artists at risk and that, in addition, reduce pollution during the combustion. On the other hand, a saltiness is given to the rice straw from L'Albufera.