This odd-looking structure might look vaguely like an alien seed pod, but it’s actually the latest in cubicle design from Dutch 3D-printing company Royal3D. The cubicle or workspace is fully customisable and modular and made of plastic waste from PET bottles.
Royal3D partnered with the ARCHITECH Company to create the R-IGLO, an enclosure that users can resize and modify on a computer and then print using a massive extrusion printer on an industrial scale. The enclosures connect to each other at the doors, and you can easily drag it out to be longer or wider and even add a few feet of height to a single unit.
Rotterdam’s Port Authority commissioned the project in order to rethink its current real estate usage and prepare its massive spaces and warehouses for the next generation of manufacturing and business. By creating these self-contained plastic shells, customers can expand operations by simply 3D printing another component.
“Rotterdam’s Port Authority is currently seeking to redevelop outdated port areas with the goal of creating an attractive business climate for next-generation maritime manufacturers,” wrote Hayley Everett on 3DPrintingIndustry, a trade news site.
The printer itself can build about 15 kg of plastic enclosure in an hour using constantly extruded recycled plastic. You can move the shells and even store them when not in use.
The goal for the Port Authority was to create a new kind of air-conditioned office space within its confines, thereby turning a ratty old wharf into a weird simulacrum of Smurf Village.