Belatchew Labs, a kind of research and development laboratory of the Swedish architects’ firm Belatchew Arkiteketer, has devised a buoyant, sustainable and inexpensive housing project for Stockholm’s young people. This project’s originality lies in 3D print.

Printing your future house in three dimensions is not a fantasy. Conclusive tests have been performed in several countries, from the USA, through Slovenia to China. But the most innovative project comes from Stockholm: using water as building land, Belatchew Labs – the Belatchew Arkitekter architectural practice’s the think tank – has come up with a complex of homes in the shape of dunes, with green roofs. The SwimCity project was devised as a response to the lack of housing for students and young working people in the Swedish capital.

To build these houses laid on the surface of the water, the designers of the SwimCity project decided to use a 3D recycled concrete print: an inexpensive and sustainable building procedure. Building industry waste enlarges the sector’s carbon footprint but by recycling the concrete in the form of printed material, SwimCity and other projects of the same type could help reduce its environmental impact.

The ecological cherry on the cake, Belatchew Arkitekter recommends using water as an additional energy source (electricity produced from hydraulic force and heat pumps) in order to power SwimCity.

Photos © belatchew.com

Tags: 3D print, Belatchev, Floating housing, SwimCity