UPDATE: This post originally stated that Villa Asserbo was 3D Printed, when in fact its pieces were printed using rapid prototyping technology (a subtractive, rather than additive process).
We’ve covered 3D Printing a lot here at ArchDaily, but most of our coverage has been speculative and, frankly, futuristic – could we, one day, print out Gaudi-esque stone structures? Or even print a biologically-inspired, living house?
But today we heard a story about an alternative to 3D Printing‘s capabilities in the here and now - and its implications are pretty exciting.
In a small town outside of Copenhagen, Danish architects Eentileen joined forces with London-based digital fabrication and architecture specialists, Facit Homes, to create Villa Asserbo: a 1,250 square foot, sustainable home made from Nordic plywood fabricated via CNC miller and easily “snapped” together.
No heavy machinery, no cranes, no large labor force. Just a couple of guys, a few easily printed pieces, and six weeks.
Get more details about this sustainable, printed House, after the break…
According to the Fast Company article where we found this story, the house bases its sustainability chops on two facts: (1) it requires no heavy machinery to construct (Frederik Agdrup, the house’s designer, comments,“No component of the construction is heavier than two men are able to carry”); and (2) it “floats” on top of 28 screw piles and not on a resource-intensive concrete bed, thus allowing it to be easily disassembled and recycled with minimal site damage.
Moreover, the Facit Homes web site praises the family home for being super insulated and airtight, so no heat is lost.
As the author of the Fast Company article, Suzanne Labarre, puts it: “This is not the world’s first attempt at rapid-prototyping a house. But for the moment, Villa Asserbo might offer the most practical model. Whereas an enormous, highly specialized printer that can’t exactly be lugged from one place to the next, Villa Asserbo can be repeated in various permutations anywhere you find CNC milling machines (they are relatively common nowadays) and plentiful wood.”
The architects are looking to make the houses open to the public soon. If their easy, sustainable, well-designed model is the immediate future of alternative to 3D Printing (and considering it’s such a “snap,” it very well might be), then we’re all aboard.
Story via Fast Company
