- Hi, I'm Professor Ronald Rael,
this is Professor Virginia San Fratello,
and we're here at the Cabin
of 3D Printed Curiosities.
Let's show you around.
(new age music)
Touring the cabin of 3D Printed Curiosities
Built on a wood frame,
most of the cabin's features are 3D printed.
- The tiles on the front facade
are made out of local materials.
Chardonnay grape skins
from Sonoma, California.
And the tiles are designed to
hold succulents and air plants
which thrive in the Northern
California environment.
- Enclosing the rest of the
house are 4,500 3D printed
ceramic tiles that we call
the seed stitch tiles.
They have this woven texture
that's very reminiscent
of stitching and you can see the bumps
that make this kind of micro surface
that looks really beautiful in the light,
and they hang very
simply from the building,
so it's easy to install.
They just go up really quickly.
The furniture is 3D printed,
even the coffee table is 3D printed,
and the coffee cups on the coffee table
are also 3D printed out of
recycled coffee grounds.
And this is really one of
the big points of this cabin,
which is that a number of the materials
are ecologically driven.
They're found from sustainable
sources, waste streams.
The entire interior is
clad with a bioplastic
that's derived from corn,
and it's translucent
and it glows at night.
This cabin is not just a research project,
but because it's
weather-proof and watertight,
one could actually live
in here and sleep in here.
It's a really functional, usable space
that demonstrates the
potential of 3D printing
in construction and architecture.
- You know, there are many
things in this building
that are basically
traditionally constructed,
but then on top of that we've
layered totally new ideas,
and totally new technologies.
- We're upcycling materials
that would otherwise
go into the landfill, but instead,
we're giving those materials value
by turning them into building products.
The implications of this
cabin are really vast.
There's implications that have to do
with the housing crisis here
in the Bay area, for example.
- So, it's like really
good for mass production,
and it's also, it may help communities
to become architects themselves.
Where they have the
materials and the components
and all they have to do is
just to put things together.
So, I think that's also maybe a new path
for a new architecture in a new era.
- [Ronald] It's very necessary for us
to make this cabin not only
functional but also beautiful,
and in a way we think
that beauty is a function.
It uplifts our spirits, it makes us happy,
and so if was very necessary
for us to think about ideas
of beauty, of warmth, of homeyness.
So, it's not just an engineering exercise,
a material science exercise,
but it's an exercise in design.
And we're hoping to build
more projects this way,
test new materials and new possibilities
for 3D printing in architecture.
