floating architecture | GIZMODO.cz

The construction industry contributes to 39% of global carbon emissions while aviation contributes to only 2% which means we need to look for alternative building materials if we are to make a big impact on the climate crisis soon. We’ve seen buildings being made using mushrooms, bricks made from recycled plastic and sand waste, organic concrete, and now are seeing another innovative solution – a floating 3D printed house!

Prvok is the name of this project and it will be the first 3D printed house in the Czech Republic built by Michal Trpak, a sculptor, and Stavebni Sporitelna Ceske Sporitelny who is a notable member of the Erste building society. The house is designed to float and only takes 48 hours to build! Not only is that seven times faster than traditional houses, but it also reduces construction costs by 50%. No bricks, cement, and concrete (responsible for 8% of CO2 emissions alone!) are used which means it reduces carbon emissions by 20% – imagine how much CO2 could be reduced if this was used to build a colony. A robotic arm called Scoolpt designed by Jiri Vele, an architect and programmer, will be used in 3D printing and can print as fast as 15 cm per second.

The 43 square meter home will have all the essentials – a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. It will be anchored on a pontoon and is designed in a way that owners can live in it all year round. Prvok is partially self-sufficient and is equipped with eco-technologies that enable it to recirculate shower water, use a green roof, and host reservoirs for utility, drinking, and sewage water. Each detail and element of the house has been thoughtfully added after making sure it can last for 100 years in any environment. Prvok is an example of what the future of hybrid houses that work for you and the environment could look like.

Designers: Michal Trpak and Stavebni Sporitelna Ceske Sporitelny

While the world handles the COVID-19 crisis, we haven’t forgotten the climate crisis. Designers Lucy Zakharova and Ted Lu have proposed a plan to tackle the ocean pollution problem with a network of five capsules that will work towards restoring the marine ecosystem’s health. The revolutionary project has been rightfully named ‘En·cap·su·lat·ing’! Let’s dive in.

There is actually so much trash in the ocean that we have a designated area called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch is 1.6 million square kilometers large and these capsules will be built from the plastic waste found here. There are literal islands made of plastic and marine life is forced to either eat plastic or get entangled in it which has been adversely affecting the larger food chain as well as migration – the marine ecosystem is being tested harshly and if not acted upon right now, it could collapse. Each capsule will be deployed at a different depth level in the ocean and work for that zone so the load is divided equally between all five structures. The real revolution here is that each pod of this constellation is non-static or migrating in design, so the pod can move along with the floating islands of plastic.

The capsules will have a non-static infrastructure and move cyclically in their ocean zones. They are not only there to mitigate the crisis caused by humans but also help the animals have a healthier environment. The main goal of this project is to detoxify the ocean by changing the plastic configuration and spread more awareness of its long-term toxic effects. The structures will have dedicated areas for research labs and data collection about the deep sea. Teams will monitor temperature, pressure, salinity, and working on preserving marine life that has not been able to adapt to the climatic changes. Structures like these are crucial for us to understand the weight of our actions and do our best to fix the damage so that we don’t have to deal with another crisis – 2021 can be a good year if we try!

Designers: Lucy Zakharova and Ted Lu