Architecture

Stylish, asymmetric floating house will be 3D-printed in 48 hours

Stylish, asymmetric floating house will be 3D-printed in 48 hours
Prvok, a 3D-printed small home on a pontoon, will be the Czech Republic's first piece of printed architecture
Prvok, a 3D-printed small home on a pontoon, will be the Czech Republic's first piece of printed architecture
View 4 Images
Prvok, a 3D-printed small home on a pontoon, will be the Czech Republic's first piece of printed architecture
1/4
Prvok, a 3D-printed small home on a pontoon, will be the Czech Republic's first piece of printed architecture
Lighting is everything; the bathroom looks pretty enchanting here
2/4
Lighting is everything; the bathroom looks pretty enchanting here
Warmer light and odd geometries in the bedroom
3/4
Warmer light and odd geometries in the bedroom
A central living area and kitchen, apparently without doors
4/4
A central living area and kitchen, apparently without doors
View gallery - 4 images

The Czech Republic's first 3D-printed house will go up next month, to demonstrate the speed and effectiveness of a construction technique that is claimed to be seven times faster and half the cost of building a brick house.

With three rooms and a floor area of 43 square meters (463 sq ft), the Prvok od Burinky home will be built layer-by-layer using a robot arm repurposed from the automotive industry. This arm will deposit a specially formulated concrete, with nano-polypropylene fibers, plasticizers and setting accelerators mixed in, at a rate of 15 cm (5.9 in) per second. Walls will be printed with inner and outer layers, and the middle will be presumably be filled with insulating material.

Within 24 hours, this concrete will set to standard house foundation hardness, and after 28 days the company says it will complete its hardening to the point where it's as strong as a bridge. The structure and materials are designed to hold up for 100 years.

This demonstration home will be built on a floating pontoon, with a wooden deck around it. Moving inside, it's a fairly small living space for two, with a bedroom, living room/kitchen and a bathroom.

A central living area and kitchen, apparently without doors
A central living area and kitchen, apparently without doors

Its asymmetric, layered walls give a glimpse of what a future 3D-printed home aesthetic might look like: freeform, without the necessity for right angles or straight lines. Almost like a cave in a 16-bit video game. One wonders how hard it'll be to keep the walls clean. But it's certainly stylish, in a minimalist way, and the warm lighting in the bedroom and cool blue of the bathroom throw some tasteful moods into the promo renders.

Lighting is everything; the bathroom looks pretty enchanting here
Lighting is everything; the bathroom looks pretty enchanting here

It'll be equipped with the requisite eco-tech: recirculating shower, green roof, and reservoirs for drinking, utility and sewage water. Adding to its green credentials is the claim that this kind of structure will create up to 20 percent less CO2 than an equivalent brick building, and "several times less construction and demolition waste."

3D-printed housing has been threatening to take off for several years now, but it's still at an embryonic stage. Aside from how quickly it allows structures to be built, it should ultimately also be super-flexible in terms of custom floorplans and exterior designs, as long as you don't mind the layered look. We look forward to seeing this thing in the flesh next month. Check out a video introducing the architect, Michal Trpak, below.

Michal EN

Source: Prvok od Burinsky

View gallery - 4 images
6 comments
6 comments
MQ
3D Printing is a really cool way to make intricate,one-off or prototype parts. For construction. Sprayed Aircrete over a plug mould is more promising. Allowing for strenthening mesh and long "fibre" reinforcing without the layer (and inclusion defects inherent in 3d print pultrusion.

There is "little hope" a 3d printed house can compete with a spray/poured concrete structure in the production setting. We can automate those processes "these a days".
Douglas Bennett Rogers
I can't find an all brick house newer than about 1960!
paul314
3D printing gives you the shell, but that's typically the least interesting part of the house. Prefab panels also give you a shell quickly. It will be way more cool when someone figures out how to embed pipes and wires and brackets and all the other things you need for house fittings as the shell is being printed. Given how long it takes to print each layer, you could even probably do the embedding by hand, but you really have to do it.
christopher
Yawn. Another death-trap of un-reinforced concrete to crush the unsuspecting non-engineer inhabitants. The reason this is built on a boat, is because it would be illegal for violating building safety standards if built on land.
Worzel
It looks pretty, in the pictures, but, will people buy them? Probably not, as they have a limited and gradually devaluing life. People who buy also want to be able to resell, and move on. These dwellings will have a very limited resale value, if at all, as for a mortgage, even less chance. They will be about as effective as trailer homes, in my estimation, which may not be bad, if thats all that is required.
BlueOak
Was going to say talk is cheap - anyone can publish virtual designs. But if you watch the video, these guys are actually doing the R&D work to prove it out.