3D Printing: The Future of Modern Housing?

June 7, 2016 | Comments

Futuristic buildings have long been a fascination within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. In fact, with the advent of 3D printing, architects and engineers are discovering new ways to build what could be the houses of our future.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, completed in 1938, is a modern structure designed to reflect an organic setting.

Structures like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater were once the ideal vision of how our houses would look decades into the future. Fallingwater was designed to maintain an organic aesthetic as well as demonstrate a sense of futuristic design. However, these unique and aspiring designs sometimes come with issues of their own.

Fallingwater was a stunning vision of modern design tucked into a natural setting with equally astonishing structural problems. The house was designed using cantilevers, a favorite of Wright’s. This became a grievous issue when the cantilevers began to deflect literally as soon as the construction crew left, eventually resulting a multi-million-dollar restoration.

Nowadays, AEC has a few new tricks up its sleeve—and these may just help us create that perfect vision of an ultra-modern and organic structure.

 

3D Printing Buildings?

To date, there have been a few examples of successfully 3D-printed buildings. Due to the unconventional construction method, these structures necessitate a different approach to design. They won’t have the traditional steel-and-concrete skeleton that makes up so much of our built environment.

One particular approach is the cellular fabrication technique from Branch Technology. This building style involves the creation of a complex triangulated mesh out of a carbon fiber-reinforced ABS plastic material. This takes on the role of traditional I-beam and rebar and reduces the need for faulty cantilevers.

The mesh can then be sprayed with a more traditional building materials such as foam insulation and coated in concrete to create a hybrid structure.

This method was the premise for Branch Technology’s Freeform Home Design Challenge, a competition conceived to bring architects, engineers and designers together to investigate the role of 3D printing in the future of our built environment.

 

A Home with Curve Appeal

Much like Wright’s Fallingwater, the Curve Appeal design from WATG is ahead of its time. The house design, which was declared the winner of the Freeform Home Design Challenge, is a futuristic structure with organic lines resembling a cave.

Have a look at the design:

The entire structure can be split into two main components:

  • An interior core, which serves as an abutment arch to support the rest of the structure and which houses the home’s integrated features
  • An exterior skin, which is constructed of a quadrilateral archway system to buttress the structure as a whole and to provide the undulating appearance

The extensive windows around the home allow for an open-concept space with plenty of passive natural lighting, connecting the inhabitants with the outdoors.

Curve Appeal is a futuristic and organic structure that creates an open space for its inhabitants. (Image courtesy of WATG.)

“Curve Appeal is a very thoughtful approach to the design of our first house,” said Platt Boyd, founder of Branch Technology. “It responds well to the site conditions, magnifies the possibilities of cellular fabrication and pushes the envelope of what is possible while still utilizing more economical methods for conventional building systems integration.”

 

Building a 3D-Printed House

The idea of a 3D-printed house isn’t all that far off from that of a modular house. In the case of Curve Appeal, the house will be printed off-site at Branch Technology in 28 individual components. These components will be shipped to the building site and assembled into four main panels, comprising the roof, the interior core and two exterior walls.

These panels will then be joined together with lap joints and secured with additional hardware before being hoisted into place. According to WATG, the design is straightforward enough that it could be completed with written instructions rather than construction drawings.

Construction is set to begin on Curve Appeal in 2017. It will be a test of cellular fabrication: will it stand on its own or will it, like Fallingwater and other futuristic designs before it, crumble under the pressure?

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