“House on a House” Showcases New Digital Construction Methods
Emily Pollock posted on March 13, 2019 |
DFAB House at night. The house is built on top of the Next Evolution in Sustainable Tech building. (Image courtesy of Roman Keller/ ETH Zurich.)
DFAB House, a building that its creators call the world’s first inhabited “digital house,” has officially opened. The house was built with a variety of novel digital building techniques, including specialized robots and 3D printing.
“The path from the digital drawing board to an actual building has challenged both scientists and experts from industry,” said Empa CEO Gian-Luca Bona in the joint press release. “Through a constructive dialogue, something truly visionary can now be put into practice; hopefully, it will soon be used broadly in the construction industry.”
The building is located in a bit of an unusual spot: perched atop the NEST (Next Evolution in Sustainable Tech) building as an experiment in building and construction. The NEST is a three-floor central module that engineers can “dock” building modules onto, much like attaching different pieces to a LEGO brick. Owned by building companies Empa and Eawag, the building has hosted multiple building experiments over the years.
The latest one, docked on the building’s third-floor platform, is a three-story house created by robots and 3D printers, with “smart home” tech inside. The top two floors are largely made of timber, put in…