If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

With all the things a 3D printer can make these days, it seems like nothing is supposed to surprise us anymore. But really, a 3D-printed house?

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how a 3D-printed house can survive a magnitude 7 or so earthquake, or even a Tsunami attack similar to the one that struck Japan’s eastern coast in 2012. But admittedly, it’s still interesting to know how Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars, of Universe Architects, will actually push through with his plan to build a liveable residence using the 3D printing technology.

TIME magazine reports that Ruijssenaars has collaborated with mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs in designing a house that they hope to begin construction using a 3D printer by 2014.

Called the Landscape House, the project is based on the concept of a Moebius Strip – a single length of any material that forms a continuous loop with just one side. Images circulating over the Internet shows the Landscape House taking the form of a twisted but continuous loop in which the floor becomes the ceiling and the ceiling the floor.

Alright, now that is something REALLY unique and now I wonder if it’s going to be really habitable. But what kind of 3D printer would these geniuses would be using then?

According to the article, the duo will be using a D-shaped 3D printer designed by Italian robotics expert Enrico Dini. The machine uses a stereolithography 3D printing process that uses sand and an inorganic binder to generate full-size, sandstone based objects.

“It is very complex to make a form such as this using traditional methods – it would involve using molds and so on. With a 3D printer you can build the house seamlessly from bottom to top,” Ruijssenaars said.

Ruijssenaars and his colleagues at Universe Architects are hoping that every country in the world will eventually have its own Landscape House.