All I need is a… 3D printer. SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) Atlanta students are taking this concept to new heights through the SCADpad project. It has been ongoing for the last 10 months and it launched this April but understanding exactly what it consists of is not entirely easy.
The MicroHousing project’s main objective is to be an experiment in sustainable habitats (intended as affordable housing) within large cities. Seventy-five Students from 12 different academic degree programs were asked to collaborate with their teachers and with affirmed artists, designers and other SCAD alumni (a total of 37) to create the next generation of urban housing out of 135 square foot (the size of a standard parking spot) units on wheels, set up in parking lots. Specifically, in this case, in the SCAD Atlanta parking lot.
The real challenge, as it turned out, was not to build and set up the living units as much as making living inside them conformable and even pleasant. To do this all the teacher’s experience in terms of artistic creativity, living design and sustainability was employed along with the latest technology in terms of interactivity, gamification of living activities and rapid manufacturing of necessary items: a MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer.
The three prototype SCADpads share a common green space where an organic garden is fed by a greywater filtration and delivery system, while a composting recycling centre helps to ensure waste is minimal and is used as a resource. The 3D printer allows residents to customize their units as a specific need arises rather than forcing them to stock a large number of unnecessary items to fulfill possible future requirements.
To make living in such a small space more appealing, the SCADPads where customized with a unique theme and visual identity, developed by the artists and designers to create a pleasant living atmosphere. Specifically developed iPad software allows for interactive control of all lighting and window light filtration, contributing to create the ideal living atmosphere.
SCAD undertook this project to teach its highly diversified student body the challenges of modern urban living, where more and more people are concentrated within huge metropolis and the cost of housing is increasing exponentially. Multi-floor parking lots were identified as structures that could be exploited for added living space (apparently, according to SCAD, there are 105 million parking spaces in the US, which they equate to five for every car, and most of them are vacant 40% of the time) through moving habitable spaces costing less than 40,000 dollars and requiring less than 2 months to build. There are obviously some issues here: for a start a quick search of the statistical records office suggests that there are approx 62 million registered vehicles in the US and around 6 million unregistered. And in the densely populated areas, parking is often oversubscribed.
Living in such a small space, in a country with so much available land as the US may seem like something of a paradox. However SCAD is conducting this as a global experiment for the future. A future in which, perhaps, the shared 3D printer in the common garden will be able to produce much more than just decorations, cups and small household items. Then it might really be all that SCADpad residents will need for comfortable metropolitan living.
