Dutch Architect to Build Home With 3D Printer | Mt Kisco Real Estate
As technology evolves, so do the ways our most brilliant minds attempt to put it to use. That’s how innovations occur. Programmers, designers and engineers are never willing to rest on their laurels. As soon as some new piece of hardware hits the market it is not only put through the paces but pushed to and beyond its limits. Only then can one discover what’s really possible, and evolve gadgets to fit mankind’s evolving needs. 3D printing has been on everyone’s minds in recent months, as its uses and applications continue to expand. One thing that’s been a pretty standard goal is figuring out how to use that technology in building projects. Architects and engineers would love to come up with a way of building a home with a 3D printer, but the scale of the project has always been a huge roadblock. According to a team of Dutch architects, this goal may someday soon become a reality.
The report first went out on the tech wire through website 3ders, in reference to recent efforts by the Dutch architectural firm Universe Architecture. With architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars at the helm, the company has finished their design of a building created out of one single piece. They will see this project from the design model through to physical completion using a 3D printer. Ruijssenaars expects they will have the house printed and ready to be put on the market by next year.
Universe Architecture is calling it The Landscape House. They’ve come to that one-piece design by looking to the classic structure of the Mobius strip. The key to the project was figuring out how to take a single surface and fold it over and over again. The architecture focuses on continuity, where ceilings turn into floors as you move through the house. It’s visually incredibly striking, and unlike any structure that’s been created to date.
So how would this be printed? The scale of the 3D printer that would be required to construct this in a single piece, as it is designed, would be next to impossible to realize. So instead of waiting for the day when that is possible, Universe Architecture figured out how to print the building in pieces. Each piece will by approximately 6×9 meters, and will fit together to eventually create the entire structure. As amazing as this breakthrough is, the house won’t be constructed 100% from the 3D printer. Without concrete reinforcements the weight of the structure would not stay vertical. The architects expect concrete placed at the contours will keep the Landscape House from falling in on itself.
There are several 3D printers that could be used in this type of project, but Ruijssenaars has decided that the D-Shape is the best choice. It creates the 3D prints using an inorganic binding material partnered with sand. What can be created with this unit is a set of shapes you’d never be able to construct by hand. It’s still incredibly expensive, so handle your brochure printing on another device. But as construction powered by 3D printing moves from dream to reality, you can expect even more designs unlike anything you’ve ever seen before will soon grace the world’s neighborhoods.
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