Softkill Design joins race to build the first 3D printed house

© Softkill Design via Dezeen

There should be an X-prize for the first 3D printed house, that perhaps has a couple of rules; the first should be that it actually is a house, "a building for human habitation" that provides shelter from the elements. The second should be that it is actually buildable and gets built before we all get so excited about it. The third might be that 3D printing is actually defined.

This design by London's Softkill Design might meet two of the three criteria. Gilles Retsin of Softkill tells Dezeen that the first prototype might be built by this summer. It is actually very clever in the way that it is built; instead of transporting a giant printer to site, smaller pieces are produced through laser sintering in a shop, and then snapped together.

"You don't need any bolting, screwing, or welding on site," he tells Dezeen. "Imagine a Velcro or button-like connection. The pieces are extremely light, and they just kind of click together so you don't need any other material."

© Softkill Design

Retsin takes a dig at Janjaap Ruijssenaars Möbius Strip monster house , noting "We actually don't even consider that a 3D printed building because he is 3D printing formwork and then pouring concrete into the form, So it's not that the actual building is 3D printed."

Whether the Protohouse 2.0 is any more plausible as a real house than the Möbius Strip is an open question that will have to wait until it is actually built. Laser sintering is extremely expensive and they have not quite shown how it will actually meet that definition of "a building for human habitation".

© Softkill Design

Softkill describes Protohouse 2.0 in a press release:






Tags: Dematerialization | Downloadable Design | Plastics


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