Will your next office be built by a printer?

12 years ago

Sure it’s fun to use 3D printers to make small tool pieces, toys, robots and other gadgets. But have you thought that one day a machine that traces its lineage to an office appliance would ultimately print the building you work in?

Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars has designed a one-piece building which will be built with a 3D printer. Ruijssenaars, from the Universe Architecture in Amsterdam, is working to with mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs on the project. They aim to have the building called Landscape House, printed by 2014, according to www.3ders.org.

Image from Universe Architecture

Units of the building will be printed in pieces as large as 6×9 metres using a massive 3D printer called by D-Shape, which was designed by Italian inventor Enrico Dini, chairman of the United Kingdom-based firm Monolite UK Ltd.

3D printing technology has been around for several years. Back in 2008, Autodesk Inc. added on-demand 3D printing to its AutoCAD design tool. More recently small 3D printers aimed at consumers have entering the market.

As the new machines become more mainstream, we wonder if they would be saddled by the same issue that plague current desktop and office printers – expensive toner.

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