建筑师计划建造3D打印的房子

Architects claim they will soon be able to print a whole house by simply using a 3D printer. The technology is still relatively new, but it’s already being used in the medical world to create prosthetics, and in industry to bring down the cost of precision parts. Now designers in the Netherlands are planning to create a complete building.

If it all goes to plan, this is what the first house to be made from 3D printing will look like. It’s been named the Landscape House.

It’s the brainchild of Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars.

Following its success across different industries, Ruijssenaars believes printing technology has come far enough to create the first full size building.

He said, "With 3D printing, you can actually directly print the shape that you want without first having to make the mould . That’s why is not only aesthetically it is an interesting technique, because you have actually density of printing that you can later see in the product, but it’s also economically (better) because you save time and energy."

To create his design with traditional construction methods, builders would have to pour concrete into specially constructed timber moulds and these would have to be removed once the concrete had set.

The house will occupy about 1.115 square meters and if it stays within the projected budget, it is estimated to cost between 5 and 6 million US dollars. The large printing technology Ruijssenaars will employ is the creation of Enrico Dini.

He said, "My personal approach in 3D printing, of building construction is: using 3D printing as our start basis of making free form cages and from then move on with the traditional construction technique."

This is Dini’s printer. It’s big, measuring 5 metres by 3 metres. But his company D-Shape is planning to manufacture a new giant 3D printer, that can construct the Landscape House.

Ground rock, or sand is put into the printer and then hardened by a binding agent.

The 3D printer will print columns that would go up vertically. The project is expected to be completed sometime in 2014.