Japan-based housing company Serendix has announced the completion of 'serendix50', a 3D printed house that forms part of the company’s mission of building homes that can be bought for the price of a car.
Serendix first made headlines in March 2022 with the creation of serendix10, a 3D printed home that was printed in under 24 hours. Having sold out the six editions of the home by October, the company undertook the design and construction of serendix50, otherwise known as the ‘barnacle model.’
The design of Serendix50 was primarily influenced by demand from older married couples seeking a home for their retirement years. The resulting 538-square-foot scheme, developed by a team including the Digital Manufacturing Creation Center, KAP, Tateo Densetsu, Hyakunen Jutaku, and Nabeju, was constructed in 44 hours and 30 minutes.
Serendix50 merges two digital fabrication techniques: 3D printing for the framework and CNC cutting for roofing. The company is currently aiming to sell six buildings following the completion of safety verifications, with a sales price of $34,000, which is 90% less than the general house price in Japan. According to the team's aspirations, such a methodology makes possible a future where the general population can purchase high-performance, safe, and inexpensive homes without the need for a mortgage.
“Until now, the house was haute couture (depending on the craftsman), and it was natural that the cost was high at tens of millions of yen,” Serendix said in a statement. “In the automotive industry, 40 years ago, the price reduction of products began due to the innovation of the manufacturing process using robots. We believe that the 3D printer house is the beginning of complete robotization of the housing industry.”
The scheme is one of several 3D printed projects to feature in our editorial. The technology is also central in a domed timber pavilion recently delivered at the University of Freiburg and a school in Lviv, Ukraine. Last month, meanwhile, ICON, Lennar, and BIG revealed the first completed 3D printed home at Wolf Ranch, Texas, while Studio RAP delivered a 3D printed passage in Delft that reinterprets traditional ceramic crafts.
5 Comments
Serendix has been reckless about touting that their construction system "reduces CO2 emmissions" while also using a huge amount of portland cement per unit area and evading any carbon accounting. It would be great if architectural media gave these projects a harder look.
Considering Japan's design is the height of minimalism and beauty it's surprising you would feature something that the antithesis. Also what Janosh said above.
Agree about the carbon accounting. Japan is pretty far behind with the concept. As a nation they are catching up unevenly here and there but it is not a thing that permeates education or practice.
The cost is amazingly low and probably the most important bit of news in the article. Factory production and prefab is so standard in Japan that the method of construction is only important because it seems to lead to actual cost reductions that are seriously large.
Agree with Eliana, aesthetically the homes are not nice to look at. Japan does do high end design but most of Tokyo (and everywhere really) is filled with ugly junk architecture. The city is usually powerful enough to make the typically crappy construction less important, but it would be nice to see what could happen with 3d printed building when design was prioritized a bit more. It is clear they are working out a lot of technical issues still, so maybe the design part of the equation will come next...
Not sure why architects who work with this technology feel compelled to squirt every volume out as a whole shape. Wouldn't it make more sense to print out pieces and assemble them in to more practical and definately more attractive shapes? The whole idea of customization seems to rely on buckets of paint, assuming one likes that layered look.
These are panels, not a single print. Visible in the photos and unambiguous in the video. They dont say why. Their first project appears more continuous so this is about some other technical aspect, presumably. Perhaps because panels are easier to arrange in Japan than finding room to rig a 3d printer on a narrow site where space is so limited. It reads as the same construction process as a prefab house, or close to it...
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