World’s first freeform 3D printed house “rethinks” traditional architecture

The world was invited to design a new kind of single-family home that “rethinks traditional architectural aesthetics, ergonomics, construction, building systems, and structure from the ground up”.

The challenge has been brought up and commissioned by Branch Technology. You may already know this company, which has been founded by a group of architects and engineers with the ambition of liberating design and creating without limitation.

To achieve this goal BT patented a technology called “Cellular Fabrication”. Think of it as mimicking nature through a 3D printing process.

Branch is using the world’s largest freeform 3D printer for a reason and the challenge reflects that by sparking an investigation into how 3D printing technologies can improve our built environment and lives today. All participants were required to propose conceptual solutions for every aspect of the house.

Architectural firm WATG (Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo) and its Chicago-based team, consisting of Daniel Caven, Chris Hurst, Miguel Alvarez and Brent Watanabe, ultimately tackled the challenge and finally won with their ‘Curve Appeal’ design. They already won first prize in the Freeform Home Design Challenge, a competition to design the world’s first freeform 3D printed house.

The design seems to fuse a desire for connection to nature with efficient building technologies.

Speaking of the design, Branch Technology founder, Platt Boyd, said: “Curve Appeal is a very thoughtful approach to the design of our first house. It responds well to the site conditions, magnifies the possibilities of cellular fabrication and pushes the envelope of what is possible while still utilising more economical methods for conventional building systems integration.”

In contrast to the slow, layer-by-layer process of standard 3D printing you might be familiar with, Branch boasts that their “algorithm creates both the geometry and robotic motion to construct complex geometries in open space, without the use of support materials or highly controlled build environments”.

The ‘Curve Appeal’ house is beginning planning phases in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Branch Technology’s lab and is expected to begin 3D printing later this year.

This article was originally published on pionic.