A Dutch architect is planning to use a unique 3D printer to construct a large building in the shape of a “Möbius Strip” infinite loop.

Architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture in Amsterdam has created a huge D-shaped printer in order to build what he has named the ”Landscape House”.

Ruijssenaars explains: ”It’s just like a normal printer… But instead of putting ink onto paper, we are putting a liquid onto sand which solidifies wherever the liquid has been spread.”

The machine is almost two meters long and has been set up in a warehouse in Amsterdam, where some important final tests are being carried out before they begin building.

The initial plan did not involve printing the building, but it turned out that a 3D printer was the most practical way of making this house without beginning or end.

Ruijssenaars said: “The ambition was to make a building that has an infinite structure, like planet Earth. Planet Earth doesn’t have a beginning or an ending and we were looking for a shape that has the same quality.”

 

Möbius Strip is One Infinite Loop of Buildings

The möbius strip will have around 1,000 square meters (or 12,000 square feet) of floor space and it is hoped that it will be used as a space for exhibitions.

Ruijssenaars said of the shape: “It didn’t become a circle but it became a very complex, möbius strip which is a well-known mathematics figure which just has one side.”

The innovative printer was designed by Italian Enrico Dini and can print up to almost a six-metre-by-six-metre square. The way it works is like a normal 3D printer, as it builds up fine layers just 5-10mm thick with the help of a computer.

This ambitious project was first unveiled in 2013, but since then the team have been trying to coordinate with their various partners the start date for construction.

They’re hoping to be able to start “within the next few years”. By then it won’t be the world’s first 3D printed building, but it will certainly be the most unique.

(Source: South China Morning Post)