Further to my post of 31 July/12, 3D-printing technology reaches yet another extreme with the upcoming creation of the world’s first 3D-printed house.
Let me be clear: I’m not talking about the prototype models which architects have been creating for a long time using 3-D printers. I’m talking about an actual, full-scale, 2-storey, habitable residence with around 1,100 square metres (12,000 square feet) of floor space.
Called the “Landscape House”, this creation by 39-year-old Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaais of Universe Architecture, Amsterdam, and mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs, will be printed in pieces using the giant D-Shape printer developed by Italian mechanical and robotics engineer Enrico Dini. This printer uses a stereolithography printing process with sand and a binding agent to create stone-like structures that are supposedly as strong as concrete. The house will take about 18 months to build and is scheduled to be completed some time in 2014 at an estimated cost of €4-5 million ($5.3 billion to $6.6 billion), according to the London Guardian.
Dini’s vision is to make the construction industry more environmentally friendly, provide low-cost buildings for people in need, eliminate the conventional process of manual construction, and give the designer absolute freedom. "By simply pressing the “enter” key on the keypad we intend to give the architect the possibility to make buildings directly,without intermediaries who can add interpretation and make mistakes in the realization," says the D-Shape Website “The human limitations of master builders and bricklayers will no longer hamper architects' visions."
http://pursuitist.com/architect-janjaap-ruijssenaars-to-use-3d-printer-to-build-a-house/
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/27/3416298/watch-this-discovery-channel-enrico-dini
