SwimCity – 3d-Printed Housing on Water

Belatchew Arkitekter’s studio Belatchew Labs presents SwimCity, a project that aims to increase the supply of housing for young people by creating a sustainable living on water. The project has been supported by the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning.

SwimCity aims to make use of the largely available water surface around Stockholm in order to create space for students housing. Flexibility is at the heart of the project, which is expressed through easily movable structures. The project uses 3D printing and recycled concrete to create unique homes that adapt to the landscape and can be built in a variety of scales. Water dwellings offer almost endless possibilities for creating interconnected and varying structures, depending on demand. In addition to being an untapped spatial resource, water is also a potential source of energy through water/water heat pumps and wave power — technologies that are implemented in the project.

Construction waste accounts for a big share of Sweden’s climate footprint, and by reclaiming concrete SwimCity helps to reduce this impact. Using 3D printing to create buildings is a new technique that makes construction simpler, cheaper and more efficient. Recycling construction waste and creating new ‘printable’ concrete make the building process more environmentally and economically sustainable. The construction process is made shorter, safer and more efficient, and the design options are endless.