Universe Architects plans to begin construction on the Landscape House early in 2014, using 3-D printing technology.
Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has been part of architects’ world for years. Recently, however, the Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architects came forward with a design for an actual, habitable residence using this technology.
Construction on the residence, designed in collaboration with the mathematician Rinus Roelofs, is aimed to commence early next year. The Landscape House, as it is called, is based on the concept of a moebius strip.
A moebius strip is a single length of material that forms a continuous loop with just one side, where the floor becomes the ceiling and the ceiling the floor.
Ruijssenaars and Roelofs began working on the project in 2012. Ruijssenaars says: “We didn’t want to influence the landscape, so we asked the question if it was possible to make something that resembled the landscape, something that does not have a beginning or an end.” The complexity of the design for the Landscape House made 3D technology a more attractive and achievable option, since Roelofs had already been collaborating with the Italian robotics expert Enrico Dini.
Enrico Dini designed the D-shape printer. The machine uses a stereo-lithography 3D printing process that uses sand and an inorganic binder to generate full-size, sandstone-based objects.
Dini’s vision is to eliminate architects’ need for expensive, cumbersome manual construction processes and to give them absolute freedom. The Landscape House is inspired by an earlier project by the Italian architect Andrea Morgante, who used Dini’s D-shape printer to construct a three-metre-high pavilion in 2009.
For more information, visit www.universearchitecture.com