On April 30, a retired Dutch couple from Amsterdam have become Europe’s first tenants of a fully 3D printed house in Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, a cream coloured modern house with a bunker-like feel. Thanks to extra thick insulation and a connection to the heating network, the house is very comfortable and energy efficient.
Printed layer by layer at a factory in Eindhoven, the parts were transported by truck to the construction site and placed on a foundation. The house was then equipped with a roof and window frames, and its finishings. One of the advantages of 3D printing is that the concrete printer has the ability to place concrete only where it is needed, without overloading the foundations and without wasting materials, making it a green choice.
Although it is early days, the 3D printing method is seen by many within the construction industry as a way to lower costs and damage to the environment. In the Netherlands, it also provides an alternative at a time when there is a shortage of skilled bricklayers.
The couple, who have lived in four different types of home in the past six years, are paying €800 a month to live in the home for six months as of August 1st. I can tell you that this is a very good price, considering the overheated housing market and the next to non-existent availability of places to rent.
A video by SEB Urban Design provides an overview of Amsterdam recreated in video game Cities Skylines. It claims to include all tourist destinations, parks and transport. The goal was to strive for realism and a close simulation of the real situation (the tram sounds are spot on).
Besides praise, we’re all wondering how long this took and we’ve noticed things we’d like to add. There’s some nice lingering on the Rijksmuseum, a very different take on Dam Square and a beautifully uncluttered Amsterdam Central Station. The canal houses are straight, the streets are super clean and you need to watch this video.
The two main parks near 24oranges HQ are there, and that’s good enough for us.
This aluminum gradient chair on display in New York in 2014 was the second in a series of three chairs that researched microstructures for furniture. According to Laarman, it was designed and directly laser sintered in aluminum, basically creating a lightweight aluminum foam that is engineered on a cellular level to address specific functional needs for different areas in the object. The solid cells in the design create structural strength and rigidity while the more open cells create material reduction and lightness, all within one printing technique.
Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 8:32 pm
As of this month and until the end of June 2016, The Netherlands will hold the presidency of the European Union. The lucky Dutch government is said to be working on “migration and international security, sound finances and a robust eurozone, Europe as an innovator and job creator and forward-looking climate and energy policy”, which sounds like a long wish list. In reality, they’re stuck with the refugee crisis and negotiating concessions to keep the UK in the EU.
Amsterdam firm DUS Architects has created the Mobile Europe Building made from 3D-printed bioplastic and a tensile fabric structure in order to create “a sculptural façade” for the building where serious EU meetings will take place, located in the marine area downtown. It has a ship and water theme to it as well – how very Dutch. Although built to host the Dutch presidency meetings, it will move onto Slovakia for the second half of the year as its name implies.
Filed under: Design,Fashion by Orangemaster @ 4:49 pm
Dutch industrial designer Leonie Tenthof van Noorden, who uses 3D scanning to produce unique custom-made dresses, calls the technique she uses ‘digital tailoring’. She also claims that going to a shop that will scan you and make clothes for you is probably not that far off, either.
Her Master’s graduation project at the Eindhoven University of Technology ‘This Fits Me’ is called the way it is because the clothing is fitted specifically to someone’s body using 3D scanning techniques and generative design, explained in the video which was filmed in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week 2014.
Dutch illustrator Ramon Bruin creates 3D drawings that really look as if they were computer-rendered but then on paper. His 3D drawings are made with a technique called ‘anamorphosis’ that adds a 3D element when Bruin inserts a finger or hand into the drawing to bring it to life.” Bruin says that this depth can only been seen from a certain angle. He also experiments with light, and with the correct light it looks like the drawing comes off the paper.”
Designed by Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture in Amsterdam, this möbius strip of a house, has a ‘coiled, acrobatic form, with double-curved walls and twisting floor plates, which could be impossible to build using conventional concrete construction methods’. However, Ruijssenaars says he could build or in any case theoretically build his home using a 3D printer.
Created for the European design competition, which highlights the work of young designers, the ‘Landscape House’ was designed by Ruijssenaars with the help of artist and mathematician Rinus Roelofs, and could be built as early 2014.