Once of the most influential factors in my decision to enroll in the class was seeing the partnership announced between ICON and New Story in early 2018. After settling down post 2017 crypto crazy, I began to look at other technologies which could impact the developing world. I had fallen in love with enabling digital and social finance and in 2018 I slowly began shifting my focus to housing. I had battled and worked through last mile internet solutions through my time with Mesh++, and now I wanted to delve into scalable solutions to solve homelessness, because everyone deserves at least that.
While researching this topic, I familiarized myself with someone we all should know, Charles Hull, the inventor of stereolithography. This was a process discovered over 30 years ago and it has just begun to go mainstream as 3D printing. It blew my mind that this was a technology discovered before the internet. As with all innovations, it takes time and large institutional investments to drive the price down, but with companies such as Formlabs coming to prominence in the last decade, we can surely say 3D printing is here to stay.
Nonetheless, concrete 3D printers are typically the type which are used currently in 3D printed houses, so it is still a niche within the industry that is not necessarily accessible or affordable for the average person yet. With that taken into account, they are typically reasonably priced, rarely crossing the $20,000 threshold. However, even the everyday firm architect experiences significant value adds from incorporating the 3D printing process into their workflow.
For starters, 3D printing can help clients better visualize and scale a potential project. Mini-cities and structures could be easily developed to show urban planners how another building would influence the landscape, and let clients get a sneak peak of their dream home through scaled down models. It also allows for simple remote collaboration, as architects could edit the digital files anywhere around the world, and then print them remotely themselves.
Additionally, by moving this manual process to a digital format, architects will inherently save time and money throughout the design process. Yet the most important aspect could be what is the equivalent of the open source code community. By lowering the cost and time effects of creating digital models, architects will be more encouraged to start repositories of their 3D designs, allowing the greater community to leverage and build off them. I can’t wait to see the GitHub equivalent in the architecture or design industries!
On the higher level, we see 3D printing continuously used more to 3D print houses directly. ICON is currently leading the field, with their printer being able to create communities with houses up to 2,000 square feet! The previously mentioned partnership with New Story subsidizes these types of houses for the developing world, specifically targeting families who live on less than $200 per month. It is reassuring to see industry trailblazers continuing to conduct business with a social impact; that is our responsibility as early adopters of disruptive technology.
Even though I can’t wait to own my mini-empire of personal 3D printed homes all across the globe, 3D printing is making an impact in architecture far beyond replacing traditional home construction (as if that wasn’t enough already). Just this month, a team of Boston University researches unveiled a shape which blocks 94% of sound. The ring-like figure is “mathematically designed, [and made from a] 3D-printed acoustic metamaterial [that] is shaped in such a way that it sends incoming sounds back to where they came from” (Fast Company). 3D printing is literally spearheading an architectural and design movement which will serve as our infrastructure backbone for at least the coming decades.
The influence of 3D printing in architecture has arguably even been felt. We’re finally closing in on an era of affordable housing in which entire communities can appear out of nowhere in a matter of days. Architects will delve into an age of newfound collaboration and digital innovation which will stimulate real estate development at a lower cost. And maybe scientists will even 3D print more ridiculous innovations which alter the sensory output of our environments. 3D printing will disrupt architecture in a way few expect, but in a way which will never leave our world looking the same.
43 Replies to “Architecture. 3D Printed.”