Sculptor creates 3D floating house
Print Edition
A Czech sculptor has teamed up with a group of architects to create a 3D-printed house prototype that could become a holiday home for the future. The house is being printed from special concrete in the southern Czech city of Ceske Budejovice and is planned to float on the Vltava river in Prague in August.
“I dare say it’s the first-ever floating 3D-printed building in the world,” said sculptor Michal Trpak, the mastermind behind the project.
The design of the house, which can be printed in two days, was inspired by a single-celled creature known as a protozoa, he revealed. As an added attraction, Trpak plans to turn the abode into a floating garden, with plants covering its roof and outside walls.
The simple 43-square-meter floor plan includes a living room with kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom.
“3D houses will adapt to the people or the countryside. The robot doesn’t care about the shape of the curve,” Trpak said. “The house is intended as a leisure-time house to stand in the countryside, ideally for a couple or a small family.”
To finance the project, dubbed the “Protozoan,” its creators have teamed up with a Czech building society.
“This one is pretty expensive because it’s a prototype and we needed many tests. But the second generation should cost around 3 million (Czech) crowns (US$127,500) and the third generation may cost about half of that amount," Trpak said.
When the robot is done, the concrete bedroom and bathroom modules will be attached to a wooden core with large windows and completed with a wooden roof. The house will then be transported to Prague, installed on a pontoon and displayed on the Vltava river in Prague’s broader center for two months.
“We didn’t have a plot of land to place it on, and anyway, to do that, you need a building permit and that takes up to two years to secure,” said Trpak. “But if you float it on a river, you only need consent from the navigation body, which is much faster.”
Trpak said the construction had not been trouble-free as the concrete is sensitive to temperature changes.
“When it’s warm it hardens faster, when it’s cold it hardens slowly so now we’re adding warm water from a boiler,” he said. “We keep researching and developing. It’s a process of trial and error.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
