Gallery: Tiny 3-D Printed Building Shares Its Energy With an (Also 3-D Printed) SUV
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The Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy structure—AMIE 1.0, for short—is a 3-D printed structure and a glimpse at how architects think we might live off-the-grid, and in the future.
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It's the creation of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill—the big-name architecture firm that designed One World Trade Center—and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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AMIE is one of the largest carbon fiber structures ever 3-D printed. The tube-shaped building is assembled from C-shaped modules that are 3-D printed in carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic and post-tensioned with steel rods.
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AMIE is also a prototype for an idea called "integrated energy," in which the structure shares energy with its vehicle, via wireless energy transfer.
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AMIE is very much a prototype, but because the structure’s functional “kitchen”—complete with faucets, a refrigerator, and induction stovetops—the SOM and Oak Ridge designers were able to put their concept to the test. The wireless, bidirectional energy system worked—at least, in a controlled setting.
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The underlying idea is similar to that of Tesla Energy’s battery system, or Snøhetta’s “plus house” in Norway. Each is, in its own way, a pilot for a new model of living that doesn’t rely on a centralized power grid.
