3D Printer Materializes Dutch Architect's Mobius House With Plant Oil, Sand Materials As Ink, Paper

The 3D printer, a unique machine that can produce continuous materials, will be instrumental in helping a Dutch architect build a Mobius strip shaped house. The project  was first unveiled in 2013, but the planned construction was announced last June 8, Wednesday. The house will be shaped like an infinite loop which has neither beginning nor end.

The device is just like any typical printer. However, instead of using ink and paper, liquid will be combined with sand to solidify the material. Janjaap Ruijssenaars, a Dutch architect is hoping to build what he calls the "Landscape House" using the said 3D printer. The printer is designed by Enrico Dini, which can print six metre by six meter square and five to 10 Millimetre layers, NDTV reported. The final tests are ongoing in Amsterdam where the machine is set up in a warehouse.

The 3D printer was not originally intended to print the building, but was used because of its practical purpose in construction. Ruijssenaars wanted to make it like the planet Earth, a shape without a beginning or end. However, according to him,  it does not have to be exactly in a circular figure, but a Mobius strip, which has the same shape principle as the earth, Phys.Org reported.

According to reports, the structure that Ruijssenaars plans to build is within a floor space of 12,000 square feet. They will start building it in sections using the D-shaped printer. The materials will be made using a plastic which is heavily based in plant oil, an eco-friendly and waste-free structure. It was also used by architect Andrea Morgante in 2009 to build a 3 metre high pavilion. Architects of Softkill Design also announced a proposal to print a house based in bone structures in October.

The 3D printing project is scheduled to start constructing in the next few years, but it is not the first of its kind. Same projects were already made in China and Dubai.