The Architects in Amsterdam have begun construction of the first full-sized 3D-printed house. Using the essential large-scale version of a desktop 3D printer, Dus Architects is building a 13-room Dutch canal house made of interlocking plastic parts. The project was announced prior in this year, it is a part proof of concept, part art project. After about three weeks of work, The Guardian reports, one three-meter-high corner segment has been produced.
The interior and facade are printed as part of the one brick, and spaces are left for wiring and pipes; temporarily, the walls are later filled with concrete for insulation and reinforcement. The entire process of printing and assembling the house is estimated to take three years. The 3D Print Canal House is conceived as an improvement to current architectural practice on several levels. Designers at Dus say that by printing series of blocks instead of building with conventional materials, they can eliminate waste and reduce transportation costs; the plastic itself can be made with recycled materials.
Single rooms and design elements could be remixed and reorganised by non-architects, allowing people to design their own ideal home and then hire a printing contractor to build it. The rooms themselves can "easily dismantled” to move the house. The pieces are made with an oversized printer called the KamerMaker (or "room builder"), designed especially for Dus. The site itself is open to tourists, who can visit on most weekdays; President Barack Obama paid a visit earlier this month.
