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News: London architecture collective Softkill Design has joined the race to build the world’s first 3D printed house, announcing plans for a plastic dwelling that could be built off-site in three weeks and assembled in a single day.

Above and top: ProtoHouse 2.0 by Softkill Design

“It will hopefully be the first actual 3D printed house on site,” said Gilles Retsin of Softkill Design. “We are hoping to have the first prototype out in the summer.”

The single-storey Protohouse 2.0 will be eight metres wide and four metres long and will be printed in sections in a factory. The parts will be small enough to be transported in vans and then snapped together on site.

“It would take up to three weeks to have all the pieces fabricated,” said Retsin. “Assembly on site is a one-day job, if the site is prepared before hand.”

“You don’t need any bolting, screwing, or welding on site,” he added. “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.”

A rival 3D printed house project by Dutch studio Universe Architecture was announced earlier this year, but Gilles dismissed its claims. “We actually don’t even consider that a 3D printed building because he is 3D printing formwork and then pouring concrete into the form,” Retsin said. “So it’s not that the actual building is 3D printed.”

Softkill Design’s proposal is a development of an earlier prototype printed house unveiled at the 3D Print Show in London last October. Instead of solid walls, the original Protohouse featured a fibrous nylon structure based on bone growth.

Above: ProtoHouse 1.0 by Softkill Design

The organic, fibrous form of the prototype led Dezeen readers to compare it to “a dinosaur head made of spaghetti” and “a giant spider cave“.

Protohouse 2.0 takes the same approach, with plastic material deposited only where it is needed. “You’re aiming to use the smallest amount of material to achieve the strongest structure,” Retsin explained. And if you push that through to the extreme  you get something that is extremely fibrous and extremely thin.”

Components for the Protohouse 2.0 will be fabricated in laser-sintered bioplastic at existing 3D printing facilities. This method provides better quality and structural integrity than printing on site using traditional materials such as sand or concrete, Retsin believes.

“The printers that you use on site can only print and build something vertically,” he said. “So they put one layer on one layer and build up the structure vertically whereas if you print off site you’re not operating in that vertical extreme, so you have much more design freedom.”

“These highly fibrous structures are only 0.7 millimetres thick,” he added. “It’s impossible to print those with stone, because there’s not enough structure or strength or integrity in sand. In the factory environment you can go into stronger materials like plastics or metals.”

The build cost of the Protohouse 2.0 is confidential, but Retsin said: “The cost balance of material, time, and logistics in a growing industry means the cost of the Protohouse could be a viable competitor to traditional means of manufacture and build in the relatively near future.”

In an earlier conversation, Retsin’s colleague Aaron Silver told Dezeen that the trend for 3D-printed building is likely to continue. “I think there really is an interesting future for architecture and 3D printing,” he said. “You have great cost savings, material efficiency, things like that, which architects are vastly interested in.”

See more stories about 3D printing, including our interview with Universe Architecture’s Janjaap Ruijssenaars.

Here’s some information from Softkill Design:

Protohouse 2.0

Softkill Design, a London based design collective, is working on a second, market-friendly version of the Protohouse.

The Protohouse 1.0 was developed as a research project at the Architectural Association’s Design Research Lab, Robert Stuart Smith Studio, and was supported by Materialise. The project is the first to prototype an entirely 3d printed building, including facade, curtains and finishes. Softkill’s main objective is to move away from the heavy, compression based printing of on-site buildings, instead proposing lightweight, high-resolution, optimized structures which, at life scale, are manageable truck-sized pieces that can be printed off site and later assembled on site.

Building upon the previous research, the new Protohouse 2.0 is an entirely 3d printed, one-storey, 4x 8m building. It consists of 7 big chunks of laser-sintered plastic, which can be transported to site in a small van. On site, the chunks are designed for assembly and can be fitted without screws or adhesive material within half a day. The hard building structure of the chunks continuously transitions into 3d printed curtain-like material.

In contrast to existing precedents in 3d printing buildings, which all make use of sand or concrete, Softkill has focused it’s research on lightweight materials such as bio-plastics. This generates buildings with a previously unseen level of detail, and opens up the possibility of printing all architectural elements, such as structure, furniture, stairs and facade, in one instance.

Instead of building on-site, where there is always the need of a 3d printer larger than the actual building, Softkill’s Protohouse is manufactured off-site in a factory environment with highly precise and fast 3d printers. A consistent tectonic strategy of part-to-whole is embedded in the design process from the very beginning.

To harness the possibilities of high-resolution 3d printing, Softkill Design developed a set of algorithms which, similar to bone growth, are able to distribute material where it is needed most. This results in a materially efficient fibrous structure which is at the same time highly intricate and has an ornamental quality. Using the algorithms, Softkill can design the micro-organisation of the material, up to the scale of 0.7 mm.

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will be assembled “in a day” appeared first on Dezeen.

This spiralling stone house in Vietnam by architect Vo Trong Nghia has grass on its roof and an oval courtyard at its centre (+ slideshow).

Vo Trong Nghia wanted to avoid copying the concrete and plaster buildings that are common in the surrounding Quang Ninh province and to instead create “a space that can record the changes and traces of time over the years through the aging of natural materials”.

Following this concept, the two-storey Stone House is constructed from locally quarried stone blocks that are stacked up in an alternating grid to give a brickwork pattern to the walls.

Dark timber frames surround the windows and stand out against the muted grey colour of the stone.

Like many of Vo Trong Nghia’s projects, the house was designed to minimise energy consumption. The central courtyard contains both a tree and a pool of water, intended to naturally cool the surrounding rooms.

Similarly, a thick layer of grass blankets the entire roof and is maintained by an inbuilt irrigation system.

The spiralling volume of the house gives a variety of ceiling heights to rooms on both floors. Bedrooms are stacked up on top of one another with lower ceilings, while the living room becomes a double height space.

Small study areas branch off from the main corridor and slot into the spaces between rooms.

Dark wood beams create stripes across the ceilings and accommodate low-energy LED lighting. Timber also lines the walls in most rooms and was used to construct the staircase.

Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia has studios in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and his firm picked up two awards at the 2012 World Architecture Festival for the Stacking Green house and Binh Duong School. Speaking to Dezeen, Nghia explained his plans to reduce the energy crisis in both residential and public buildings.

See more architecture by Vo Trong Nghia Architects »
See more architecture in Vietnam »

Photography is by Hiroyuki Oki.

Here’s some more information from Vo Trong Nghia Architects:

Stone House

This torus-shaped stone house is located in a quiet residential quarter beside the way to Ha Long Bay from Hanoi. A rising green roof and walls composed of subdued color stones in dark blue create a landscape, which stands out in the new residential area.

In Vietnam, ordinary houses are made by reinforced concrete, brick, plaster and painted boards despite there are abundant natural resources in the country such as stone, timber and so on. The subject of this project was to create a space that can record the changes and traces of time over the years through the aging of natural materials, which contributes to cultivate the beauty and enhance inhabitants’ affection for the house. To achieve this goal, stones quarried from Thanh Hoa province (so-called blue stone) and hard wood (“Go Huong”) were chosen for the main material of the house and they are designed together with greenery.

Above: concept diagram

A characteristic of this house is the layout of rooms in an elliptic plan. The rooms, composed of four clusters, surround the oval courtyard, making a colony-like relationship. The voids are inserted between each room-clusters and become activity nodes for its inhabitants as well as pathways for wind and light, connecting the courtyard and outside garden. The surface of the oval courtyard is a shallow pond with a symbol tree, which let cool air flow into the interior spaces.

Above: ground floor plan

Circulating flow runs around the courtyard and continues to the green roof, connecting all places in the house. The rising roof creates spaces with various ceiling height, which correspond to the functions of the house. For instance, the living room has nearly five-meter-high slanted ceiling, which provides verticality and openness. The courtyard and the green roof compose a sequential garden, which creates a rich relationship between inside and outside of the house. Residents discover the changes of the seasons and realize their wealthy life with the nature, thanks to this sequential garden. Irrigation pipes are buried under the soil of green roof as a component of automatic watering system, to lighten the maintenance work of the inhabitants.

Above: first floor plan

To create a wall with smooth curvature, cubic stones with 10cm thickness, 10cm height and 20 cm width are carefully stacked. The curved wall was stacked trapezoidal stone alternately and the regular pattern of the gap performs the play of light and shadow. Massive and meticulous texture of the wall generates a cave-like space, which recalls the image of a primitive house.

Above: roof plan

Interior of the living and dining room is finished with hard wood. Wood boards on its wall and round-shaped wood louvers under the ceiling create a friendly atmosphere for gathering. Louvers have LED tapes on its tops of and provide indirect light to the space underneath.

The fence of the house was also made of blue stones. It is harmonized with the main building and its garden. Creepers on the barb wires on the fence form a circle of green, and this green fence together with the green roof create a multi-layered green-scape and become a landmark of the town.

Above: section

Cow grass was originally planted on the roof and several native ferns covered the roof afterwards. The combination of plants, stones and timbers provides a space, in which the time of the family is being recorded. The family with 2 young children has been enjoying their living in the house which changing day by day. They sense each other and deepen their communication, rounding and rounding in the house.

Above: section

Architect Firm: Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Principal architect: Vo Trong Nghia
Contractor: Wind and Water House JSC
Status: Built in 02.2012
Program: Private House
Location: Quang Ninh province, Vietnam
GFA: 360sqm
Client: Individual

The post Stone House by
Vo Trong Nghia appeared first on Dezeen.

This house outside Lisbon by architects GGLL Atelier has a grey base that nestles into the landscape and an angular white upper level that follows the incline of the hill (+ slideshow).

GGLL Atelier designed the residence as the home for a family of four and it is located beside a golf course.

The house features an L-shaped plan that folds around a patio on the south side of the house. “The L-shaped plan came from the need to create an exterior area that is protected from the wind from the north,” architect Gary Barber told Dezeen.

A garage, a wine cellar, a games room and a cinema room are located on the ground floor, while living rooms, bedrooms and a library benefit from the higher ceilings on the first floor.

“We split the house into two distinct volumes,” said Barber. “The base is where the least common areas of the house are found and it has a more solid nature, kind of working like a pedestal. The upper volume of the house is where the more normal spaces are found and is white to show the clean lines.”

A terrace occupies the roof, offering a view out over the golf course.

Other recently completed houses in Portugal include a residence with red concrete walls and a bright white house with a sprawling extension.

See more houses in Portugal »

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a project description from GGLLatelier:

Quinta dos Alcoutins Lt.4

The House is inserted on an estate situated at the northern limit of Lisbon, the lot is north-facing with an accentuated decline.

A grey volume draws the exterior spaces of the house and rectifies the inclined nature of the terrain, allowing the social areas a better solar exposure, the slanting white volume floats over it, turned away from the exterior limits of the lot and opening over the garden and the swimming pool.

The distribution is pragmatic and very clear: The grey volume is filled with the complementary spaces of the house, illuminated by a patio carved in it (shower room, spa, cinema room, wine cellar and garage) the white volume is occupied by the main spaces of the house (lounge, library, kitchen and bedrooms) privileged by the transparency towards the garden and swimming pool. The rooftop is torn by a white terrace overlooking the golf-course and the city skyline.

Architecture: GG. LL atelier – Gabriela Gonçalves, arqtª, Leonel Lopes, arqtº
Design Team: Miguel Malaquias, arqtº, Gary Barber, arqtº, José Doroana, arqtº; Ana Braga, arqtª
Structural engineer: Betar, Miguel Villarengº
Constructor: Ultracasa 2001

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor/roof plan

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by GGLL Atelier appeared first on Dezeen.

Rounded shingles create wooden scales across the walls of this small house in Hackney that architect Laura Dewe Mathews has built for herself (+ slideshow).

Nicknamed the Gingerbread House by neighbours, the two-storey house sits behind the reconstructed wall of a former Victorian box factory and its tall windows overlap the mismatched brickwork.

“I and the planners were keen to retain something of the original building envelope,” Laura Dewe Mathews told Dezeen. “The pale grey/blue bricks were part of the workshop when I bought it and the clean London stock bricks were infills.”

The architect drew inspiration from decorative vernacular architecture in Russia to design the cedar-shingle facade, then added windows framed by thick galvanised steel surrounds.

“I was keen that the cladding somehow softened the sharp silhouette of the overall, stylised building form and thought the round ‘fancy butts’ might achieve this,” she said. “Contemporary architecture can often be perceived to be severe and alienating and I wanted to avoid that. I hope the balance of the sharp galvanised steel window reveals and cills versus the round singles manages to be more friendly.”

To avoid overlooking neighbouring houses, all windows had to be placed on the north-facing street elevation, so Dewe Mathews also added a large skylight to bring in natural light from above.

A double-height kitchen and dining room sits below this skylight on one side of the house and opens out to a small patio. The adjoining two-storey structure contains a living room on the ground floor, plus a bedroom, bathroom and small study upstairs.

Walls and ceilings are lined with timber panels, while a resin floor runs throughout the house.

The building was the winner of the AJ Small Projects Awards 2013. Also nominated was a wooden folly that cantilevers across a garden lake and a reed-covered tower that functions as a camera obscura.

Scale-like facades have featured in a few buildings over the last year, including a university building in Melbourne and an apartment block in alpine Slovenia.

Photography is by Chloe Dewe Mathews.

Above: the original site

Here’s a project description from Laura Dewe Mathews:

Box House / “Gingerbread House”

This is the first new build project by Laura Dewe Mathews. The motivation for the project was to create a domestic set of spaces with generous proportions and lots of natural light while working with a limited budget.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

The site was originally part of the garden of an early Victorian end of terrace house in Hackney. It was first built on in the 1880s, to provide Mr Alfred Chinn (the then resident of the end of terrace house) with space for his box factory, making wooden boxes for perfume and jewellery.

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

In discovering the history of the site, Laura Dewe Mathews was drawn to assemble yet another box inside the original envelope of the factory.

Above: cross section through kitchen and dining room

The one bed, new-build house was recently completed using a cross-laminated timber super structure, placed inside the existing perimeter brickwork walls and rising up out of them. The timber structure has been left exposed internally. Externally the palette of materials is limited to the original and infill brickwork, round “fancy-butt” western red cedar shingles and galvanised steel flashings, window frames and window reveals. The soft shape of the shingles contrasting with the crisp edges of the galvanized steel.

Above: cross section through living room and bedroom

The form of the proposal was a response to tricky site constraints, common for urban developments in already built up areas. The neighbours’ rights to sunlight, daylight and privacy needed to be respected. Consequently the only elevation that could have any windows was the north facing, pavement fronted elevation. The proposal counters this with large south facing roof-lights; added to this, light is brought into the main living spaces via a new private yard.

Above: front elevation

At 80msq the result is a small yet generously proportioned house. At ground floor level it retains the openness of the original workshop while feeling a sense of separation from the street immediately adjacent.

Above: side elevations

Structural engineer: Tall Engineers
Main contractor: J & C Meadows, now incorporated within IMS Building Solutions

Above: rear elevation

Sub contractor/suppliers:
KLH – cross laminated timber super structure
Stratum – resin flooring
Vincent timber – cedar shingle supplier
The Rooflight Company – roof light supplier
Roy Middleton – bespoke joinery including kitchen
MPM engineering – stainless steel to kitchen

The post Gingerbread House
by Laura Dewe Mathews appeared first on Dezeen.

German studio Fabi Architekten has stacked a black building on top of a white building to create this house in the Bavarian countryside (+ slideshow).

A rectilinear white volume nestles against the hill at the base of the house, providing a combined bedroom and washroom, while a black building shaped like an archetypal house sits on the top and contains a kitchen, dining area and living room.

Glazed walls line the facades of both storeys, offering views out over the landscape. “The volumes open up to the natural space, the forest,” said Fabi Architekten. “[It is] a minimal intrusion into the hillside topography.”

On the upper floor, the glass doors slide open to lead out to a triangular roof terrace, while on the level below they provide a second entrance to the house.

The main entrance is positioned on the side of the building and is sheltered beneath the overhanging corner of the first floor.

A cantilevered wooden staircase connects the two storeys.

The house is located in Wenzenbach and was completed in 2012.

Other houses completed in Germany recently include a gabled house in Metzingen and a residence in Stuttgart with an inclining profile. See more architecture in Germany.

Photography is by Herbert Stolz.

Above: lower floor plan

Above: upper floor plan

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by Fabi Architekten appeared first on Dezeen.